Until recently, a Dec. 30 deadline loomed large over local governments when it came to buying ahead for COVID-19 supplies.
Through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Bartholomew County was allocated $2,684,820, according to county director of emergency management Shannan Hinton. Columbus was allocated $1,542,474.
Expenses reimbursed with CARES must be incurred in the period starting March 1, 2020 and ending on Dec. 30, 2020, federal officials said.
However, county auditor Pia O’Connor said that the deadline has changed somewhat. While the official deadline to request reimbursements through the CARES Act is Dec. 30, not all supplies have to be purchased within that time.
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O’Connor said that governments are now allowed to submit public health and public safety payroll expenses for reimbursement, and guidance from the Indiana Finance Authority and the U.S. Department of Treasury indicated that the county should submit all public safety and public health payroll related expenses from March 1, 2020 to September 30, 2020.
She said that in the county’s case, the funds from the payroll reimbursement will go into the general fund and can be appropriated in the future for COVID-19 expenses.
“We’re going to ask the council to reallocate that into a COVID-19 pandemic fund that we can pull from, and pay for future needs, any future PPE or anything like that that we need to ensure the safety of our responders and our county offices through this,” said Shannan Hinton, Bartholomew County’s emergency management director.
Stocking up
While the deadline has been changed, city and county officials are still being careful to stock up on supplies.
Robin Hilber, Columbus assistant director of community development, said that for the City of Columbus, this includes masks, disinfectant wipes and disinfectant gel. She said that while there was some difficulty purchasing cleaning and sanitation supplies earlier in the pandemic, it’s going more smoothly now.
On a county level, Hinton said that they’ve been buying ahead on supplies in case of any shortage that might arise and are trying to “maintain a sufficient stock without necessarily going overboard.”
“We’ve tried to ask different agencies to anticipate their potential needs,” she said. “Originally, when we did it, we did it through the end of the year. We’re kind of re-evaluating now how much we have on hand, the kind of burn rate that we’re seeing now with the use of individual items.”
The county is buying ahead on gloves, masks, disinfectant wipes, sanitizing spray, gowns, goggles and coverall suits, Hinton said.
Throughout the pandemic, the county has had “periodic” difficulties buying supplies, with different items becoming harder to purchase at various points throughout the year, she said.
“When it first started off, gloves were not a really hard commodity to come by, but any of the proper masks, any of the true N95 masks, that are approved through the CDC, were difficult to find,” she said. “And we kept watching and waiting and watching and waiting. And when they became available, we got them in.”
Other CARES expenses
As of Nov. 13, the city had submitted and received reimbursements for about $125,000 and that funds have also been earmarked for projects that will be completed by Dec. 30, Hilber said. She said that many of the submitted reimbursements were for “small items” such as disinfectant and plexiglass.
The city has also been reimbursed for temperature monitors that it purchased for the rear entrance to city hall and plans to install touchless doors at that entrance, Hilber said. She added that there are also plans to install touchless devices, such as sinks, in the city hall restrooms.
Other planned reimbursements include costs from providing COVID-19 testing at FairOaks Mall and from the COVID-19 Community Task Force website. The website is a shared expense between the city and county.
“We also have been able to use this for additional expenses to improve our telework capabilities,” she added. “There have been computers and monitors and some cellphone usage that we’ve been able to reimburse employees for.”
On a county level, Hinton said that items for CARES reimbursements include:
PPE
Hand sanitizer
Disinfectant wipes
Disinfectant spray
Air purifying systems for HVAC in county buildings
Ultraviolet lights for decontaminating jail areas
Disposable silverware and containers for jails
A scanner for purses and bags at the courthouse
Dispatch equipment
Other expenses the county has reimbursed or may reimburse with CARES funds include temperature scanners, transport vans and the Bartholomew County Broadband Initiative, O’Connor said.
What’s next
Hinton said that reimbursements can also be sought through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Once this is all over with, we can file for reimbursement for anything that we’ve spent that’s not been reimbursed already,” she said.
Hilber said it’s unclear at this time if there will be a second wave of CARES funding.
“We’re just not certain at this point whether there’ll be another allocation or not, but we’re doing our best to spend these funds wisely and spend them on things that will have lasting impact,” she said.
