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The Mower County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday passed a resolution to allocate CARES Act relief funds in Mower County.

Mower County was allocated just over $4.9 million under the CARES Act. The CARES Act sets three criteria that all expenses must meet to be an eligible use of the funds: they must be necessary, unaccounted for in the current budget, and incurred during the covered period between March 1 and Nov. 15, 2020.

The board’s resolution calls for Mower’s CARES Act funds to be allocated as follows:

• Medical Expenses – $160,000 – mass testing expenses, mass immunization expenses, and serology tests for county staff.

• Public Health Expenditures – $780,000 – 800 megahertz radio upgrade for public works and sheriffs office. PPE for the public for congregate care, EMS, county staff, and others, cleaning and disinfectant products and extra contract cleaning protocol.

• Public Health Measures and Compliance with Executive Order – $1,810,000 – providing paid sick and paid family and medical leave to public employee, laptops, printers, and other equipment to accommodate telework, software to accommodate telework, permit software and record digitizing to accommodate public service off site, technology update to boardroom, renovation of HHS to accommodate social distancing, IT system needs to accommodate telework and enhanced security, distance learning support for Mower County students, and Health and Human Services program to prevent eviction and provide food support and other essential needs.

• Payroll – $750,000 – payroll expenses for public safety, public health, health care, human services, and similar employees whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID19 public health emergency.

• Economic Support – $1,305,000 – small business relief program includes $1,000,000 for small business, $250,000 for non-profit, and $55,000 for program administration and outreach/marketing.

• Other COVID-19-related expenses reasonably necessary to the function of government that satisfy the fund’s eligibility criteria – $100,000 – emergency management vehicle and trailer and a juvenile transport van to provide social distancing.

All allocations meet the eligibility criteria of the CARES Act.