County, city governments to receive CARES Act funds

Millions of dollars will be allocated to Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Cape Girardeau County to help pay for COVID-19 expenses, thanks to action taken by the Cape County Commission.

During their business meeting Thursday, the commissioners unanimously approved a motion to provide up to $2.1 million of CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act funds to Cape Girardeau and up to $950,000 to Jackson, as well as a maximum of $2.4 million to the county treasury.

Each of those amounts includes previously-allocated CARES Act funds and will help pay for unbudgeted expenses related to COVID-19 incurred by the police and fire departments in Cape and Jackson as well as the Cape County Sheriff's Department and County Jail.

"We're coming down to the end of the distribution process for our CARES fund which was passed down from the federal government to all the states to help offset unbudgeted expenses caused by coronavirus," said First District Commissioner Paul Koeper.

Cape County received approximately $9,235,000 in CARES Act funds and over the past four months the County Commission has allocated about half of that amount to reimburse schools, businesses and other organizations in the county for their unbudgeted coronavirus-related expenses.

To date, approximately $2.4 million has been allocated to public and private schools in the county, $617,000 to the Cape County Health Department, about $48,000 to hospitals and another $227,000 to a number of county businesses.

In addition, rural fire departments have been allocated about $152,000 while a number of other organizations have been designated to receive another $300,000. The commission also expects to receive another funding request later this month from Cape Girardeau Area MAGNET, which has been collecting reimbursement requests from area businesses.

"If you add up those amounts and the amounts I just recommended of up to $950,000 for the City of Jackson, up to $2.1 million for the city of Cape and up to $2.4 million for the county, it comes up to almost $9.2 million, leaving us about $49,000 to get us to $9.235 million," Koeper said.

The recommended amounts, he said, were based on a percentage of the police, fire and sheriff's department payrolls, not including supervisory personnel.

"The Cares Act allows distribution to local fire and police departments based on the fact they've been involved on the front lines," Koeper explained.

The county has already allocated approximately $352,000 of its CARES Act funds on behalf of the city of Cape Girardeau. That amount will be deducted from the maximum funding level approved for the city meaning Cape Girardeau will receive up to $1.748 million in coronavirus-related funding from the county.

Likewise, Jackson has already been designated to receive $25,800 for reimbursement of coronavirus-related expenses, meaning it could receive additional funding of up to $924,200.

"Basically, we'll be using it for qualified expenditures," said Cape Girardeau city manager Scott Meyer who said the city's police and fire departments have had to absorb a number of unexpected costs related to the coronavirus pandemic.

"We haven't made any decision yet about how (the additional CARES Act money) will be spent, but we'll make sure it is spent within qualified parameters," he said.

Jackson city administrator Jim Roach said the funds allocated to Jackson will be used to "offset additional costs" associated with the pandemic.

"This seems to me to be a fair and equitable way to use the CARES Act funds for the police and fire departments," Roach said. "The County Commission had a big task to distribute those funds. My hat's off to them."

"I feel we've done a good job trying to distribute the (CARES Act) money throughout the county and spread it out the best we could," Koeper said. "We're coming up on the end of the year and we have to be finished with it by then. Money that is not used probably has to be sent back to the state of Missouri which will either give it back to the federal government or use it for something else."

Additional AED Units

In other business Thursday, the County Commission approved a request from Sam Herndon, deputy director of the county's Office of Emergency Management, to replace nine 11-year-old automated external defibrillator (AED) units with 29 AEDs and accessories at a total cost of $60,788.30. The purchase will be paid for out of the county's capital improvement budget.

"These things (AEDs) are the equivalent of computers," Koeper said as he moved to approve the purchase. "As you know, we have to update and upgrade our computers, and we've had these AEDs for 11 years now, so I think it's time for us to upgrade them."

The additional AEDs will allow allocation of more devices in the county's Justice Center and will make it possible for county deputies to carry AEDs in patrol vehicles.

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