County receives $900k to support families, business

ROCKINGHAM — County Manager Bryan Land announced this week that Richmond County had been awarded $900,000 in coronavirus-related relief funds which will be used to help local families weather this challenging time.

The funds can be used to provide up to six months of emergency payments on behalf of individuals or families to prevent utility service disconnection and/or pay rent and mortgage payments to prevent eviction, according to Land. The funds are a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) under the North Carolina CDBG Coronavirus (CDBG-CV) Program, which was authorized by the federal CARES Act of 2020 to help the state respond to COVID-19.

Applications for these funds were open from Sept. 1 to Nov. 10, when the requests for funding had exceeded the total $28,517,231 available in the program. The funds were available to municipalities with populations under 50,000 and counties with populations under 200,000 on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Funds can be used in the following ways, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce:

• Support families and communities through telehealth support and other public services.

• Protect the most vulnerable and high-risk populations.

• Assist small businesses with economic recovery.

• Address testing, tracing, and tracking trends.

At the time of the announcement, Land did not have much information available since he had just gotten the news, but not much else was known by Friday afternoon. A letter dated Dec. 4 from Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Kenny Flowers stated that state officials will soon contact Richmond County government to help implement the grant.

The county has not yet received the funds, nor devised a plan on how they will be distributed.

“Still haven’t received the funds or any additional updates other than it may take Commerce a few weeks to issue the official funding package,” Land said in an email Friday afternoon.

It was unclear as of Friday if any Richmond County municipalities applied for the CDBG grants before Nov. 10 or, if they did, whether they were approved. This story will be updated when more information is available.

The Department of Commerce’s website outlines other priorities for uses of the funds. These include public service, which includes preventing evictions and utility disconnections, and supporting food distribution, testing and diagnosis, and employment training for health care workers on the frontlines; public facilities, which includes supporting broadband services and enhancing internet access that supports schools, jobs, and healthcare, as well supporting building expenses relating to repurposing additional buildings into patient treatment centers.

Finally, the funds are intended to be used to provide financial assistance to businesses with 100 or fewer employees, including those with less than five employees, and support businesses that produce medical supplies and allow small businesses hurt by the pandemic create and retain jobs.