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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2021)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | JANUARY 21, 2021 Fund from A1 COVID-dominated land- scape. “We kind of took the approach of spending [the funds] on things and we tried not to spend as much as we could have on actu- al salaries or wages, which were already in the budget,” he said. Some examples of such spending included the pur- chase of portable toilets and sanitizing stations for public use and technolog- ical upgrades to the city’s virtual public meeting equipment. Although the U.S. De- partment of the Treasury changed its policy months ago, allowing the relief money to be used for emer- gency and public safety staff, Meyers said the city opted instead to stick with what he interprets as the original intent of the relief package. Meyers estimates that police officers, for instance, spent more than $68,000 worth of time cleaning ve- hicles, jails and extra disin- fection which was required by new COVID-related standards, but such staff hours were already budget- ed and so left out of the re- quests for reimbursement. However, staff who took leave because of COVID, such as those needing childcare for children no longer in school or those caring for someone with COVID, were reimbursed with the relief funds. As reported by The Or- egonian in October, state auditors found in a review that cities, counties and other local governments had used the majority of federal coronavirus relief money available to them for payroll and employee leave costs. Congress sent $1.4 bil- lion to Oregon last year as part of the national relief fund to help states pay for pandemic-related expens- es. It was reported that state auditors found that, of the $91 million in reimburse- ments that governments requested by Sept. 22, 65 percent was for payroll or leave costs. Kip Memmott, director of the state Audits Divi- sion, was reported to have summarized the findings in a letter to the Depart- ment of Administrative Services, which is tasked with distributing the funds. “Spending on more di- rect services to affected populations — such as homeless services, food delivery to residents, and quarantining individuals — has been relatively low by comparison,” Memmott wrote. Local Spending Comparatively, Cottage Grove has used the funds largely for items other than payroll and employee leave. In all, payroll expens- es, which were geared toward employee hours substantially dedicated to COVID-related work, came to about $9,656, which paid for tasks such as the building of sneeze guards and installing sani- tation stations. The largest person- nel-oriented funding went to paid sick leave and paid family medical leave, which is required by law, at almost $41,000. Other categories of the city’s spending included $3,505 for medical and protective supplies, $4,218 in communication and en- forcement and $15,450 for the application of public safety measures. An amount of $29,692 also went toward disinfect- ing public areas and facil- ities, which involved the sanitation of bathrooms and playground equipment as well as the installation of REME HALOs, an in-duct air purifier technology. the county had already purchased the shelters us- ing CARES Act funds, Cot- tage Grove could not use the same funds to procure them from the county. Currently, the county re- tains ownership of the shel- ters and is lending them to other cities such as Flor- ence and Oakridge as well. Around $59,000 in re- maining funds are being requested in the current window of reimbursement for other expenditures such as technological improve- ments to the city’s telework equipment, which allows for public access to virtual public meetings. The equipment upgrades are planned to continue of- fering virtual meetings and online streaming as a new option for the public. As no additional federal funding for municipalities has yet been authorized, Meyers is detailing oth- er related expenditures in hopes of making the case to higher levels of govern- ment that cities could use 10% OFF REPAIRS OR SERVICE ON 00 100 more aid. “We are going to ac- tually document and say, ‘Here’s where we’re using all the coronavirus mon- ey that you provided to us. But here’s another 100 and some thousand that we’ve spent that we also need – that we spent our own money to take care of COVID-related stuff,’” he said. In the meantime, a res- olution to appropriate the federal relief aid reim- bursements back into the budget is scheduled for the Feb. 8 Cottage Grove City Council meeting. City council meetings can be attended online by clicking on the GoTo- Meeting link provided on the corresponding agenda page at www.cottagegrove. org/meetings. Note: Some expenditures were rounded off for the purposes of this article and may not reflect exact dol- lars upon calculation. 844-739-5874 BUY 1, GET 1 % 40 OFF 150 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE ENJOYING A NEW SHOWER IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two. #SeenItCoveredIt. Jim Goodling - Mike Grant 330 OR-99 Suite C • Cottage Grove, OR 97424 541-942-0165 CALL TODAY newshowerdeal.com/grove | 855-408-9139 Free Appraisals I’ll Come to You! 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