Henry County supervisors grapple with COVID funding

MT. PLEASANT — The omnibus American Rescue Act of 2021 has money to help counties like Henry County recover from extra expenses they encountered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The problem is that the rules are complicated — spelled out in a 150-plus page document from the Treasury Department.

It looks like the county needs to apply for half the funding it needs in the next 60 days, according to Supervisor Greg Moeller, who has been reading the document. A year later, the county can request the other half, he said.

The Rescue Act was approved earlier this year by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden. It also is called the stimulus package and provided cash payments for nearly all people in the country.

County Treasurer Ana Lair suggested the money available to the county could be used for a new phone system for better handling appointments for things like vaccines. The phone system also could help with:

“That is an example of what this money could be used for,” she said. “It would have been so helpful to have that during the pandemic.”

Supervisor Marc Lindeen noted that rules need to be followed on spending the money.

“Our problem is going to be how to spend the money correctly,” he said.

County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss, who regularly deals with federal funding for secondary roads projects, echoed Lindeen’s concerns about documenting properly how the money is spent.

“They will take your money back if you don’t do it the right way,” he said.

Public Health Director Shelley Van Dorin said that nearly all of her staff’s time is “related to COVID now.”

“April we had so many clinics,” she said.

Each vaccine clinic that Public Health runs requires five nurses and four support staff. County officials think money for that should be fully reimbursable. The department uses a time-tracking application tracking “every minute of every day.”

The application includes a category for COVID-related tasks.

“We’ve actually been planning for a pandemic for years,” Van Dorin said. “We just wish it would never have came.”