Stanislaus County will help cities during coronavirus. Here’s how much they’re getting
Stanislaus County supervisors gave approval Tuesday to make $15 million in federal CARES Act funding available for cities to cover eligible expenses of dealing with the coronavirus emergency.
The unanimous vote also approved a plan for spending the county’s pot of $96 million from the $150 billion CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund, created to help state and local governments navigate the pandemic.
The county will use $30 million for county department expenses, and another $15 million is planned for economic development purposes.
County board Chairwoman Kristin Olsen and Supervisor Terry Withrow are on a committee that will develop recommendations for using the $15 million for economic development after talking with people in the business community.
The remaining $36 million will be set aside for now until more is known about spending options for the federal assistance.
Modesto’s share of the funding for cities is $7.5 million. The CARES funding can be used to cover pandemic-related expenses, such as employee overtime and purchase of protective equipment and supplies.
Other allowable costs are staff time spent responding to the public health emergency, information hotlines and economic support for those suffering from employment or business interruptions because of coronavirus-related closures.
Local officials hope there is more clarification about CARES Act spending in the coming months.
“I believe the rules will be loosened,” county Supervisor Vito Chiesa said.
The county is using a population formula in allocating the funds to its nine cities. It works out to $2.51 million for Turlock, $1.64 million for Ceres, $845,000 for Riverbank, $779,000 for Patterson, $776,000 for Oakdale, $402,000 for Newman, $300,000 for Waterford and $246,000 for Hughson.
The cities will need to show their expenses are eligible for reimbursement under federal guidelines. County staff said the funding for cities could be reduced if other coronavirus-related state or federal assistance is made available to them.
County leaders also approved a lease for 22,300 square feet of space at 4701 Stoddard Road for housing an infectious disease contact tracing team and other public health staff. CARES Act funds will pay for the $373,584 first-year lease for the Stoddard Road facility, which increases to $386,976 the second year.
The county’s public health staff will share the more than 100,000-square-foot building with Kaiser Permanente and American Medical Response.
Stanislaus was eligible for a share from the Coronavirus Relief Fund because its population is more than 500,000. Cities in the county were not eligible because of their smaller populations.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 2:12 PM.
