Local small businesses and school districts received the majority of Callaway County CARES Act funds, according to documents from the county auditor's office.
Callaway County received $5,249,247 last May to use for pandemic-related expenses, though the state left decisions about how to spend that money in counties' hands. Interest brought the total funding available to $5,255,481. Having been told the funding would expire at the end of 2020, the county had it all distributed by Dec. 31.
"We spent all the funds," Callaway County Auditor Karen Rentschler said triumphantly.
In order to prioritize the funds, the county formed the CARES Act committee - consisting of Rentschler and representatives from municipalities within the county and the Callaway Chamber of Commerce - which worked with the Callaway County Commission to set up rounds of funding and award money to applicants.
"We had an excellent group," said Gary Jungermann, Callaway County presiding commissioner. "I'd put that same group together again."
The nonprofit Fulton Area Development Foundation also aided in processing applications for several rounds of funding.
Applications for the first round of funding opened in June - months ahead of some county neighbors, such as Cole County, which didn't start distributing money until August.
Money went out in five rounds:
Round 1: COVID-19-related expense reimbursements, $584,647.44
Round 2: Mitigation efforts and continued covid related expense reimbursements, $3,817,612.45
Round 3: Small Business Recovery Grant, $508,000
Round 4: Small Business Utility Grant, $125,221.32
Round 5: Small Business Marketing Grant, $220,000
The county's four public school districts, plus Jefferson City Public Schools, William Woods University and Westminster College, received a total of $1,356,365.21. As a category, they received the largest percentage of the county's care funds, coming in at about 25.8 percent of the total spent.
Under CARES Act guidelines, the county could reimburse public schools up to a certain amount of money per student; Callaway County chose to give public districts $100 per student, though the districts could also apply for additional grants.
The largest school amounts approved were $471,918.25 to Fulton Public Schools and $239,230.18 to North Callaway R-1, both under Round 2.
Businesses didn't lag far behind.
Figures from the auditor's office show $1,250,590.19 was approved for local businesses, with more than 240 businesses - most of them small - receiving funds.
Among them, the Callaway Community Hospital (formerly the Fulton Medical Center) received by far the highest amount of money: $347,212.60, primarily from rounds 1 and 2. By comparison, the second-highest recipient in the category was The Callaway Bank, receiving $70,250.92. A distant third was Backers Potato Chips, which got $36,119.93.
Most businesses received funding in the range of $2,000-4,000, depending on the rounds of funding for which they applied.
Jungermann noted counties weren't allowed to give businesses funding to make up for lost revenue.
"If there was one thing I could do different How could I get the federal government to change the rules so we could focus a little bit more on small businesses?" he said. "If there was a little more leniency around small businesses, we could've done some great things."
The third largest category of spending was labelled "personal protective equipment/testing/miscellaneous" on the spreadsheet provided by the county auditor's office; it totalled $1,174,543.68.
That sum includes some of the bigger-ticket items purchased by the county, including $138,606 for a command trailer, $467,856 for portable radios for first responders, $257,650 for thermal temperature scanners for Callaway County's public schools, $65,537 for disinfectant systems and foggers (available for the community to borrow) and $30,060 for a morgue cooler.
Jungermann said many of those purchases will likely come in handy during future disaster responses.
Local municipalities could also apply for money under rounds 1 and 2. Fulton, Holts Summit, Kingdom City, New Bloomfield and Auxvasse all received funds, totalling $452,544.46. The City of Fulton got the most: $46,267.30 under Round 1 and $183,333.23 under Round 2. Kingdom City came in second, receiving a total of $88,508.09 under Round 2.
Nonprofits, including churches, received $453,990.43, with churches specifically receiving about $57,000. Central Missouri Community Action was the category's biggest recipient, receiving $91,922.73 during Round 2.
The Callaway County government retained $342,561.59 and gave a further $889.79 to the Callaway County Circuit Court.
Jungermann said $150,000 went to the Callaway County Sheriff's Office - the same amount the Fulton Police Department received via the City of Fulton.
Around $70,000 left right before the spending deadline went to 911/Emergency Services.
"It'll do things within that system so we can be better at what we do into the future when it comes to pandemics and that sort of thing," Jungermann said.
Other money paid for overtime early in the pandemic, additional poll workers during elections and hiring and training contact tracers.
The county retained only $35,000 for administrative costs, Jungermann added.
Political subdivisions - such as fire departments, Callaway Special Services, public libraries and the Callaway Ambulance District - were the smallest category, garnering a total of $175,779.86. The Callaway Ambulance District received the most out of the category at $163,079.84.
Rentschler said her office tracked all the paperwork required of recipients and submitted detailed information about disbursements to a state-run portal. Missouri hired the certified public accounting firm BKD to audit county CARES Act information, she said.
"We will also be audited on the CARES Act funding during the county's annual external audit for 2020, which will take place this summer," Rentschler added. "We feel we are in a very good position for this audit based on the response we received back thus far from BKD."
Jungermann said he felt the county did a "pretty good job" disbursing its COVID-19 dollars. He said other counties looked to Callaway as a model.
"We made real strides in not only helping areas (during the pandemic) but doing things that'll benefit Callaway County citizens into the future," he said.
To view the complete list of disbursements by recipient and round, visit bit.ly/36qwOLz. To view the breakdown by round and category, visit bit.ly/3oAaK7w.