In August, the Rushford City Council approved the acceptance of roughly $133,000 in funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act with the intention of helping Rushford businesses and nonprofits. At the time it was noted the distribution of the funds needed to satisfy three criteria: they must be necessary expenditures due to the public health emergency, must be expenses not accounted for previously, and must have been incurred between March 1 and November 15, 2020. Furthermore, requests for the funds must be reasonable and have proven documentation.
City Clerk Kathy Zacher was tasked with creating an application for entities requesting the funds based on more than 20 pages of guidelines of restrictions provided by the state. The simple application was approved by the council at the August 24 meeting. No dollar limit was set for the applications, but the council has the discretion to approve them all or in part or to deny them based on lack of need or evidence. Councilors Leigh Volkman and Sally Ryman, along with City Administrator Tony Chladek and Zacher, serve as the committee to review applications.
The city received 17 applications by the September 21 deadline. According to Ryman at the September 28 meeting, all provided the information requested and were eligible for funds. Two were under $1,000. “It was obvious we should go ahead and approve them,” noted Ryman. The others applied mainly for lost income and expense reimbursement and varied from $4,000 to $100,000. “We decided the only fair way to look at them at this point is to cap it and go back for round two.” Ryman clarified that part of the problem was not knowing if additional funding would be provided by Fillmore County CARES Act funding or other grants and recipients can only receive the federal funds from one source for a specific set of needs. That information will be public by October 6.
“There was no way to say ‘yes or no’ based on the information,” added Volkman. “We felt it was a reasonable number.”
The total amount approved was $57,163. With the remaining $62,837 left to utilize, the city has approved a second phase of funding with a deadline of October 20. This gives the committee and city staff six days before the second council meeting in October to decide the recipients.
“They wanted to be honest in it and assumed city wasn’t going to reimburse them for all of it,” said Ryman. Both previous applicants and new applicants will be looked at in the next round with an emphasis on new applicants.
“I prefer it get divided up, if people didn’t apply,” noted Volkman regarding the remainder.
“We’ll see what the second round brings, concluded Ryman.
The Rushford Peterson Valley Chamber of Commerce is assisting businesses and nonprofits in filling out the form if there are any concerns or confusion. Any unused funds must be turned over to the county by November 15.
In other news, the city has approved the preliminary levy for 2021. The public is reminded that the city may lower the final amount certified to the county in December, but it may not raise it past the preliminary level.
The city is proposing a levy of $1,017,000, representing a net increase of 4.52%. The average for the last six years is a 5.47% increase.
“It’s never an easy thing to do that, but based on what I saw, it looks good. There’s still a little wiggle room based on what we have passed,” said Mayor Terri Benson.
Benson also noted the levy has been partially funneled into feeding capital projects, including things such as street repair and maintenance.
“It’s a decent return on it when you have a quality city staff working on projects. Maintaining ahead of time makes sense and is worth it. I’m a fiscally-responsible person and I don’t see an issue with it,” said Volkman, who is also a local businessman.
Local Government Aid (LGA) for 2021 has been locked in, but what will happen with future funding is up in the air. Because of that, the city has purposely spread LGA funds around the city budget so as not to find themselves in any uncomfortable funding positions. “If one fund was relying on that, it could be devastating. There’s pain everywhere, but not in one big lump sum,” explained Zacher.
“It’s very unlikely that anything will change. Next year might be a hit in the gut,” said Councilor Jim O’Donnell.
“We’ll deal with whatever,” responded Chladek. “It’s all guessing right now and there’s no point in doing that.” The council unanimously approved the preliminary levy.
The Library Board has made the decision to make some changes to library usage. While doors won’t be open to the public at large, they will be allowing “knock and enter” browsing. Essentially, if there are no scheduled appointments to use the library, the public can knock and Director Beth Nelson will allow them entrance. “That way she’s able to keep it organized, keep it flowing,” said O’Donnell. There will be no use of the restrooms during this time. Curbside pickup still available for those that prefer it.
“Our distribution numbers are obviously down,” added O’Donnell. “It was going to be a banner year. We’d had more checkouts in January-March that in previous years. It’ll come back.”
The next regularly scheduled council meeting is Tuesday, October 13, at 6:30 p.m., at city hall. Please note the day change due to the federal Columbus Day holiday.
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