The Carbon County Commissioners approved the submission of the application for assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for the COVID-19 County Relief Block Grand in the amount of $5,796,203.11 on Thursday.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein noted the short notice to submit the application complicated the process.

“Last week, while we were in the meeting, I would say it was during the meeting, that we received an email to apply for the almost $5.8 million grant that we had to have the application in by Tuesday, June 16,” Nothstein said. “We had come discussions on it, on how we would proceed and what we had to do.

“We enlisted the help of our fiscal consultant Jeff Weiss and he put together a grant application and that was submitted about noon time on Monday. They did give us a whopping one-day extension until Wednesday. It’s just how the state works; they sit on this for months looking for guidance, and we’re still continuing to look for guidance on these grants, etc.”

While the county was able to submit the application on time for the maximum amount allowed, Nothstein noted the potential issues still remain moving forward.

“Now, the problem is the distribution of this,” said Nothstein. “We have not received the money yet, but we met with Weiss and we will be coming up with some applications for the different entities, such as municipalities and their expenses and small businesses.”

Nothstein said that there would be committees formed with commissioners involved for municipalities, small businesses and corporations. There will also be a committee for tourism businesses.

“Other grant programs that will come through us like the small business development centers, and Wilkes University who have been helping our businesses through this virus issue and helping businesses get back on their feet,” said Nothstein. “So they’re looking for grants.”

Nothstein said the county would also work with behavioral health and treatment services to develop a plan for those agencies, as well as assistance for nonprofits.

“We have a long way to go, but we’re hoping to have applications ready by the middle of July,” Nothstein said. “We don’t know when the funding will be coming to Carbon County. The decisions have to be made for each of the different entities, municipalities in the county, etc.

“Some of the restrictions on these are that you will have to have invoices for paid bills. It has to be above and beyond what you’re normal budget was; it has to be COVID-related expenses. If you’re a business of over 100 employees, you do not qualify under this program. If you qualify under another program, that will be taken into consideration.”

Questions still remain regarding the distribution of the funds.

“We’re not sure how we’re going to do it, if it will be per capita or percentage wise,” said Nothstein. “At first, when we received notice of this $5.8 million, it seemed like a lot of money. But when you look at all the businesses in Carbon County that were affected, and lost money, or were forced to close, it adds up in a hurry.

“We certainly hope to help as many as possible through this process. Again, we’ll be looking at the middle of July probably sometime as far as having the applications ready to go our to the different entities that might be eligible.”

Nothstein stressed the documentation is essential to receive any assistance.

“It’s going to be very time-consuming,” he said. “We only have until the end of the year to expend all those funds. The problem I see is that any funds expended up until that time are eligible, but we’re going to have to set our own deadline somewhere.”

Nothstein said the county is looking at possibly two rounds.

“At least to get some funding out there to our businesses and municipalities that have taken big hits. We’ll look at what else comes in the remainder of the year.

“We’ll see how it plays out and we’ll keep the public informed as well as all the different entities that are eligible for grant funding as we get more details from the state and as we develop our application process and how we’re going to try to distribute this funding fairly.”