The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Funds will be dispersed to municipalities and special districts
By Katherine Nettles
After months of negotiating, the state has agreed to issue $1.5 million in federal CARES Act reimbursement to Gunnison County to disperse among municipalities and special districts within the county. The funds were part of a $2.2 billion CARES Act allocation to Colorado.
Initially, the state administered a portion of the $2.2 billion to the largest five counties in Colorado, and it was unclear whether any other counties would be awarded funding or if the remainder would be used in the state’s general fund. State legislators agreed in May to allocate an additional $275 million to reimburse the remaining 59 counties, such as Gunnison County.
Gunnison County commissioner Roland Mason thanked commissioner John Messner for his role in helping secure the funding from the state for rural counties across Colorado. Messner has been lobbying hard at the state level for funding allocations.
“John played a huge hand in working with CCI [Colorado Counties Inc.] in lobbying the governor’s office to release that money to the rest of the counties,” said Mason. “I want to thank you for all your work on that.”
Gunnison County will now receive up to $1.5 million in qualified reimbursements for expenses related to COVID-19 response and recovery. County manager Mathew Birnie warned that with the reimbursement program’s current deadline of December 2020 for qualified expenses, the money may be difficult to spend.
He said he is working to secure an extension so the funding can cover the county’s pending contact tracing program and COVID recovery coordinator position through 2021.
“We have actually secured several grants to cover a lot of our expenses so far,” said Birnie. He estimated that so far, only about $100,000 of eligible county expenses have not been covered. He also said he had been speaking with the town managers of the local municipalities to determine how the funds will be distributed among them as well.
