The Cole County Commission on Tuesday approved $179,969 in internal county government requests for federal COVID-19 pandemic aid. Officials with BKD, a Springfield accounting firm assisting the county in meeting its obligations under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, went through the applications to make sure they would qualify to get these funds.
Of that amount, $14,009 will go to pay for a respirator fit tester for the sheriff's department, $12,000 will pay for attorney fees for juvenile court for continuances of cases due to COVID, and $144,960 will pay for electronic conversion of aperture cards in the recorder of deeds office which would allow people to access records remotely and not have to physically come into the office to see them.
By definition, an aperture card is a type of punched card with a cut-out window into which a chip of microfilm is mounted. Such a card is used for archiving or for making multiple inexpensive copies of a document for ease of distribution.
The commission also approved $1,826 for Show Me Curriculum Administrators Association, a health care provider on Northeast Drive, to pay for personal protective equipment.
Coming into Tuesday, the county had $2,584,061 in CARES funds left out of the just more than $9 million they were given back in March. With the $172,795 approved Tuesday, that still leaves $2,411,266 in CARES funds.
The deadline to make requests for CARES Act funding was Monday and BKD officials said they had about 15 applications make it in before the deadline. The commission will look at approving more CARES requests Thursday.
Meeting video:
Cole County Commission meeting of Dec. 1, 2020, part 1
Cole County Commission meeting of Dec. 1, 2020, part 2
Cole County Commission meeting of Dec. 1, 2020, part 3