In what may be the commission’s last action regarding federal CARES Act funds, this week commissioners voted to extend the program to benefit the Platte County Health Department.
Director of administration Dana Babcock presented the deadline extension at the Monday, Aug. 16 administrative session held at the Platte County Resource Center in Kansas City. The extension will allow the county to use the remainder of CARES funds – about $100,000 — to reimburse the health department for expenditures made securing a location for mass vaccination clinics.
Last spring, the health department opened a space in the Horizons business park in Riverside, allowing for mass vaccinations.
CARES funds not expended by program end would need to be returned to the state for redistribution, possibly all the way back to the federal government. Commissioners were keen to avoid that outcome.
“It is important we keep federal money in the local community,” second district commissioner Joe Vanover said. “We can agree or disagree with the federal government spending enormous amounts of money, but once that decision is made in Washington, DC, we should put the money to good use in our community.”
First district commissioner Dagmar Wood said the county had already allocated approximately $275,000 for the mass vaccination clinics, through the Platte County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office oversees emergency operations in the county.
While some of that money could have gone to rental fees, she said it did not.
“Also I agree with Joe that this is something the federal government has already allocated,” Wood said. “I don’t necessarily agree with a lot of the policies being made federally but since it is in Platte County’s hands, being a good steward by not sending it back to Nancy Pelosi’s district would be advantageous.”