Gilmer County commissioners have approved the Georgia CARES Act contract, which is the first step toward applying for funds dealing with the county’s COVID-19 (coronavirus) response.
Chairman Charlie Paris and Post Commissioner Hubert Parker approved the contract at a special meeting July 30. Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson did not attend the meeting.
Paris said the state has set aside approximately $1.5 million from the CARES Act for Gilmer County. Initially, 30 percent of the funding was given directly to the county to deal with expenses which arise due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“They’re doing this because they deem it an emergency,” Paris said.
Gilmer County will submit receipts for expenditures back to the state to account for the funds. Any extra will be returned to the state.
The remainder of the funds set aside for the county will come in the form of grants. Approval of the contract at the special called meeting is the first step towards an application.
“Everything that we are going to use the money for has to be completed by December,” Paris said.
Some of the funds may go toward cleaning and wages for county employees who were out of work due to the virus.
Much of the funding will go toward public safety for things like personal protective equipment, stretchers and possible a new ambulance.
Paris said ambulance costs have been highly skewed to patients with coronavirus or with symptoms of coronavirus.
“With the increase in calls we have had it has put an incredible strain on us,” Paris said.
Gilmer County Public Safety Director Keith Kucera said the calls for patients with coronavirus vary from day to day, but can be as high as five in one day.
“We certainly have an uptick in the transport of patients displaying COVID-19 symptoms,” he said.
This is in addition to the normal 911 call volume.
Every call is treated as if there is a possible infection, Kucera said, with full protective equipment.
“We’re there to protect the patient and ourselves,” he said.
The precautions add up in costs for the personal protective equipment.
“We go through that stuff quite a bit,” Kucera said.
It also means taking equipment like stretchers out of service to be sterilized. If equipment is out of service, back up equipment needs to be available for the next call.
“We’re very happy the decision was made to move forward with it,” Kucera said.
Paris and Kucera both said they are in the preliminary stages of discovering what the funding can be used for in Gilmer County.