On Thursday afternoon Governor Tim Walz announced a plan to distribute $853 million in relief to communities impacted by COVID-19 with $12 million allocated to food shelves and food banks. The remaining $841 million will be distributed to counties, cities, and towns. Crookston will receive $604,304 in aid. “I have not read the full bill at this point,” said Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner. “I know a per capita amount is being distributed to each locality. With our population, we should be receiving $604,304, and that will have to be applied towards expenses for coronavirus. At this point, we have not accumulated those types of expenses as far as the amount. I will submit all the expenses available through the proper process during the timeframe that it is available.”
Weasner doesn’t know the exact expenses the city has spent on COVID-19 at this point, but some areas of spending include hand sanitizers and plexiglass shields. “We’re also working on the plexiglass shield that was installed in some locations. We’ll also be doing some of the payroll expenses for those that had to be gone during that timeframe that would be accumulated. There is a lot of sanitizing equipment that may be purchased and/or products that will be used for sanitizing to keep everybody safe during this.”
Weasner said that the expected surge in COVID-19 in the fall could lead to increased expenses. “With the increased expected peak and surge, they expect later this year that might be used up at a later date,” said Weasner. “At this point, we still have some expenses that we’ve been tracking and will continue to do so.”
Below are the federal guidelines for the use of CARES Act funds –
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