Updates on the first two COVID-19 grants awarded to Marshall County were given to the Marshall County Commissioners Monday morning.
Priority Project Resources Grant Writer Shannon McLeod said the first round of COVID-19 grant funding was used to purchase six LED message boards from Graycraft Signs Plus for each community in Marshall County. The county was awarded $150,000 in that grant request and those funds were spent.
“These six signs are integrated where they could communicate a county-wide message in the event of an emergency, or more COVID updates like vaccine locations and things of that nature,” said McLeod. “Things such as AMBER Alerts and snow emergencies can be displayed. So, it’s an emergency messaging system for the county. When there are no emergencies in the process the communities then, too, can utilize those signs to upload information about things that are going on in their particular communities.”
The commissioners opened a public hearing to take comments on the first grant and there were no comments voiced. McLeod said all closeout documentation needed to be signed and the commissioners agreed to allow Commission President Kevin Overmyer to sign those documents.
In the second COVID-19 grant applied for and awarded to the county to aid small businesses in the county, Ginny Munroe from The Troyer Group asked the commissioners to sign an updated contract now that the procurement process was done. Munroe would be the grant administrator for the grant.
Munroe said another step in the process is to request the funds from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) in order for the state agency to provide a check to the county. The county would then submit a check to the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation who is administering those grants to the small businesses. Munroe noted that Greg Hildebrand from the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation submitted a list of 39 small businesses applications to OCRA that the loan committee approved.
Munroe commented, “OCRA has officially approved of all of the small businesses that Greg submitted. There’s $247,500 worth of applicants. The amount that OCRA will allow us to send out through this grant is $243,750. The other $6,250 OCRA set aside for grant administration. So, Greg will have to slightly tweak his list.”
The commissioners approved the request with a unanimous vote.
