Facing a Nov. 30 deadline, Rock County disburses more CARES Act dollars

Rock County Commissioners allocated more CARES Act dollars last week in response to a fast-approaching spending deadline.
Commissioners  allocated almost $220,000 to five community service organizations and will make a final distribution of the more than $1 million into Rock County through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
At their Nov. 17 meeting, commissioners unanimously supported allocating CARES dollars to:
•Rock County Ambulance, $7,437.
•FamilyU, $22,000.
•Luverne Community Education, $35,000.
•Rock County Food Shelf, $35,000.
•Rock County Opportunities, $45,000.
Commissioners also supported allocating CARES dollars to the Hills-Beaver Creek and Luverne school districts before the Nov. 30 spending deadline.
Exact amounts to the schools are dependent to unspent dollars arriving back to the county from townships and municipalities.
Commissioners tentatively planned to allocate $20,000 each to the school districts.
“It (dollars returning) could be zero dollars up to substantial dollars,” said County Administrator Kyle Oldre.
Rock County was allocated $1.144 million of the federal funds in June.
That amount grew to $1.188 million recently when three townships and the city of Steen indicated they would turn unspent funds back to the county for distribution.
The county’s remaining nine townships and seven municipalities each received separate CARES Act dollars with a spending deadline of Nov. 15.
Unspent dollars would transfer to the county to provide direct economic assistance for residents and businesses.
What Rock County doesn’t allocate would be sent back to the state for allocation.
Since June, the county immediately distributed $740,000 to businesses and non-profit organizations through grant applications up to $5,000.
An additional $227,000 was spent on personal protection, computer infrastructure, additional cleaning supplies, health and human services, and protective barriers.
The most recent allocations included returned dollars.
“Some of the cities and townships chose (A) not to take their allocation or (B) sent us money back,” Oldre said.
The city of Steen returned $1,484 of its $13,712 allocation, as did Kanaranzi Township ($2,000 out of $6,000) and Beaver Creek Township ($6,241 out of $9,275).
The townships of Luverne ($11,550) and Martin ($9,175) gave their full amount back to the county.