The City of Ellijay has already received 30 percent of a total $89,724 in relief funds provided by the CARES Act and it has been approved to soon receive the rest of that total amount, confirmed Mayor Al Hoyle.
Ellijay City Councilmembers approved a resolution authorizing the execution of a coronavirus relief fund agreement for the city to receive the funds when meeting briefly Monday, Aug. 17.
“We are applying it toward salaries for public safety. That’s how we applied for it and that was one of the ways you could apply and go ahead and get it all. It will go into the general fund because we are applying for salaries that have already been paid,” Hoyle said.
According to the office of Gov. Brian Kemp, the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act created the relief fund to provide financial resources to state and local governments.
Also according to the governor’s office, the U.S. Treasury has alloted Georgia approximately $4.1 billion for coronavirus-related expenses and the local government share is approximately $1.8 billion. Five local governments with populations of more than 500,000 received direct allocations, leaving approximately $1.23 billion to be disbursed.
Hoyle said the money Ellijay is eligible to receive does not have to be repaid.
“It’s coming down from the federal (government) to the state and the governor’s office is distributing it among all the local governments, counties and cities. It was available to all cities to my understanding,” he added.
Ellijay has been lucky not to endure as much coronavirus-related loss of revenue as some larger areas, Hoyle noted.
“We have not seen a major loss. We dropped off a little bit (on sales tax) for one month and then it kind of went back to normal and has been normal since then. I know a lot of larger cities have to be struggling, but we’ve been fortunate so far,” he added.
In other news ...
Also at the Aug. 17 city council meeting, a resolution recognizing the dedication of Shrine Club Drive as a city street was tabled until the council’s September meeting.
The same item had been previously tabled from the council’s July meeting due to all property owners not having signed a right of way agreement. The city plans to pave the road after it is officially adopted into the street system.
“We’re still lacking one signature. We don’t want to pave part of a road. When we do it, we want to do the whole thing,” Hoyle said.