FOLEY - The City of Foley was awarded $987,000 from the Federal CARES Act Relief Fund. The fund is to help municipalities and counties alleviate expenses related to COVID-19. Money received from the fund must be spent by December 30. Expenses must not be previously budgeted items.

“The city is probably up to a quarter million dollars with the HVAC modifications that have been approved, we’re probably between $200,000 and $250,000,” said City Administrator Mike Thompson. Since the city owns Riviera, Thompson believes the city can potentially tack on their COVID related expenses to Foley’s application, which would bring the total to around $450,000. If the money is not spent before December 30, it will return to the state.

“One thing that we’re pushing for, and other cities and counties as well, is pushing Congress to expand what this money can be used for,” said Thompson. “For example if they added that this could be used to offset lost revenues, end of story, we’ve used the money. We’ll have lost $5 million from COVID, so with this money we’d have it covered. If they approve lost revenue being added then we’ll have no problem hitting the money and getting the full amount. If that doesn’t happen it’s not going to be easy to find that amount of money on things directly associated with COVID-19.”

Some possibilities the city is looking into are purchases of protective gear that can be used by first responders for COVID-19 as well as future responses, modifications to city owned public facilities such as no-touch doors, advanced cleaning equipment, and cleaning certification programs for city staff training.

Thompson says staff will work on suggestions and bring them back to the council for approval at a future date.