The commissioners have already approved expenses of about $700,000 for supplies and equipment to make county employees, residents and buildings safe during the pandemic, extra health department help, a COVID-19 education campaign and a program to help businesses operate safely.
She said the commissioners have expressed an interest in helping the food pantries and small businesses. She has also proposed a jobs program.
This is the final round of CARES Act money, totaling $650 million, the state has released to local governments. Gov. Mike DeWine was scheduled to sign the bill enacting the legislation Thursday. In August the state controlling board released $361 million in federal funds, and $175 million went to local governments. The first round of $350 million was released earlier this summer, and Butler County jurisdictions received $10.7 million.
Some of the deadlines for spending the money have been extended, but unused funds will still go back to the federal government at the end of year, unless Congress acts.
“We are going to be looking at sharing some of that with the cities and townships. We’re still crunching some numbers and trying to come up with a plan that makes sense," Commissioner Don Dixon said. “But at the end of the day, if there’s not a good project and it doesn’t make sense we won’t be spending it.”
Commissioner T.C. Rogers said he has received several calls from residents who were critical of the county’s marketing campaign because they don’t believe the coronavirus is a real threat. The commissioners allocated $225,000 for a multi-faceted campaign using billboards, direct mail and other vehicles to encourage safe practices to stem the spread.
“The fact is it is here, there are people are dying, I believe there are less people dying than had we not done any of these things,” he said. “We are not wasting the money in our opinion and we have talked about this at length. We will continue to do what we think is best for the residents.”
Commissioner Cindy Carpenter told the Journal-News the county’s task force on the coronavirus recently discussed using some of the money to shore up the public health system in the county.
“They’ve been under supported in terms of funding and in actual facility space,” she said. “Now that we’ve got this crisis they’ve been called up to handle huge duties and serve a tremendously large population compared to what they would normally do.”
The commissioners already approved money so Health Commissioner Jenny Bailer could hire more staff. She said she will be working with Emergency Management Agency Director Matt Haverkos to possibly give the commissioners a proposal for more funding but “this conversation has not yet occurred.”
The other governmental jurisdictions in the county also received money in the third round. The first two rounds were distributed based on the state local government funding formula, this time it was based on population.
In the large jurisdictions Liberty Twp. has spent the least amount of CARES money at $28,800 on personal protective equipment and installing plexiglass at the new administrative center. All tolled, including the new money, the township will received $2.48 million.
Trustee Steve Schramm said although the board has not made any decisions regarding the money, he would favor sending the money back to Washington. While they could use the money to pay for fire department expenses he said they didn’t hire anyone new because of the crisis and the staff have just been “redirected” from other duties which was not a hardship.
“I feel like we made it. Could I come up with a reason to get more money, probably, if they relax the rules, yeah,” he said. “But we’re doing okay. How about we give it back to the taxpayers.”
Hamilton has received the second largest allocation at $4.1 million including $2.2 million in this funding round. The city has spent $899,500 of its initial allocation, including $300,000 each on programs to help small businesses and on local non-profits to help residents with utility and other bills.
Finance Director Dave Jones said it will be up to the city council to decide what to do if they have leftover funds.
West Chester Twp. is the second largest jurisdiction in the county with just over 62,000 residents and will have received $3.89 million in CARES funding. Barb Wilson, director of public information and engagement, said while the programs like giving financial help to small businesses are “stellar” it would involve considerable administrative costs and bigger government.
With the relaxation of the safety personnel rules the township now plans to use the money to pay part of the salaries for police and fire departments from March through December.
“Because of this loosening of strings, however, it is certain that all of the funding can be allocated to this category of expenses,” she said. “We will use all of the money distributed to West Chester from this legislation.”
Other jurisdictions like Fairfield, Fairfield Twp., Middletown and Oxford have used their funds in various ways, on programs to help businesses, buy and install equipment to make remote working easier, education and of course PPE.
“We have allocated all of the previous CARES Act money received, and we plan to be as innovative and thoughtful as possible to utilize all of the funding granted to the city in this final round of CARES Act funding as well,” Middletown Finance Director Jacob Burton said adding $246,400 of the total $3.3 million allocation will go help house the homeless.
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