EDWARDSVILLE — Officials updated the Madison County Board on Wednesday on the more than $11 million in its COVID-19 relief funding to aid local residents and communities.
Chairman Kurt Prenzler asked department heads to update the County Board on programs and services funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.
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Health Department Director Toni Corona, Community Development Administrator Trudy Bodenbach and Employment and Training Director Tony Fuhrman presented the information on the federal and state funding received by the county.
The funding has gone to a wide-range of projects to include contract tracing, small business grants and jobs training for displaced workers.
“The Health Department has received three grants totaling $5,532,365,” Corona said.
Corona said the largest grant went for staffing expenses of case investigations and contact tracing. The three grants are the Crisis Grant for $132,879, Local Health Department Contract Tracing for $4,905,792 and a Local Coronavirus Urgent Remediation Emergency (CURE) Support Program for $493,694.
Corona said the Crisis Grant provided funding for emergency operations and coordination, distributing PPE to first responders, etc., information sharing, issue quarantine and isolation orders, distribution of medical materials and more. She said the CURE grant is a reimbursement to local health departments from Illinois Department of Public Health for service performed or good received due to the medical expenses, costs or providing COVID-19 testing.
“Our largest grant funds are used to support the Health Department to augment ongoing contact tracing programs,” Corona said. “This is a key strategy in preventing the spread of COVID-19.”
Community Development Administrator Trudy Bodenbach said the county received $5.6 milion for various programs to help small businesses with lease expenses or payroll, provide rental/mortgage assistance, emergency lodging, utility assistance, vocational training, transportation, emergency health relief (prescriptions, copays, dental) and other programs.
“We have received a total of eight grants,” Bodenbach said.
The county board voted Wednesday night to authorize $1.75 million in CARES funding. Madison County’s Community Development Block Grant program distributes the federal virus relief money as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Department’s (HUD) CARES Act. The funding will used to award grants for small businesses. Madison County will award 75 grants and Alton will award 15 and Granite City, 19.
Other funding includes funding from the Illinois Department of Human Services ($589,177), All Chicago Continuum of Care ($48,000), Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity ($1,716,598) and Molina Healthcare ($4,000).
“We recently received notification that the county would be receiving another $1.5 million in HUD funding,” Bodenbach said.
Fuhrman said the U.S. Department of Labor and DCEO granted $1.47 million for a dislocated worker emergency re-employment program.
“These funds are being used to retrain 100 dislocated workers in the nine county Southwestern Illinois Economic Development Region,” Fuhrman said. “Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will be the training provider for three technician career paths — lab, food science and chemical.”
The CARES Act mandates the money given to local governments needs to be spent by the end of the calendar year.
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