By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Geary County will receive $6.37 million dollars and Riley County $14.99 million under the first round of Coronavirus Relief fund distribution. State Sen.Tom Hawk provided those numbers during a virtual Town hall meeting with area elected officials and leaders Wednesday night. Clay County will also receive $1.6 million dollars.
Hawk hosted the session to gain input from the region he represents so recommendations can be made to the State Finance Council on spending $1.25 billion in federal funding which will be distributed in three phases including $400 million in the first round to counties across Kansas for COVID-19 related expenses and improvements. Phase Two will total $525 million for use in areas ranging from revitalization and economic development to infrastructure.
Counties can use the funds in round one for COVID-19 related expenses and improvements.
During the input portion of the Town Hall, Geary County Commissioner Keith Ascher said the counties need some guidelines on how to disperse the money and some criteria. "Our fear is that we do not want to be a clearinghouse per se."Ascher also touched on the figures provided by Sen. Hawk. "They're going to be beating our door down for that money and we need to have some kind of guideline of how we're going to process this."
Hawk said the money must be spent by the September - early October time frame or it must be returned to the state.
Manhattan Mayor Usha Reddi observed that if Riley County receives $15 million there will have to be work done on a resolution to allocate some of the money among cities and school districts in the region. She wants to look at some kind of formula to disburse the funds. "And to spend it by October. That's the other deadline we need to meet."
Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo told the Town Hall officials in his county have discussed the issue with Sedgwick and Johnson Counties about how to replicate use of the money. Those counties received their funds directly from the State.
Vargo said Riley County has a proposal for cost recovery and emergency management services from the same group hired by Sedgwick County. Vargo added Riley County has a budget and planning committee that has been working on this issue for the past week. "We're going to recommend to the Board ( County Commission ) for that agreement."
Vargo noted the federal regulations are complicated and changing all the time for County staff to interpret. "So what we envision is taking the advice of this company that we're going to hire for their services to recommend how those funds be allocated because we're going to have to be able to survive a single audit by the federal government. "
The federal Coronavirus Relief funds are being funneled through the State to counties.
The Town Hall session dealt primarily with Riley, Geary and Clay Counties because those are counties represented by Sen. Hawk.