Signs for the Centralia Downtown Association hang on a window Wednesday morning in Centralia.
The Centralia City Council voted to grant its remaining CARES Act funding to the Centralia Downtown Association to give out small business loans to Centralia businesses and to the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce for personal protective kits for businesses at the Tuesday evening council meeting.
The council voted to split that remaining $84,000 in funds equally between the two organizations — $42,000 for each. Although this round of CARES Act funds have been fully distributed, city manager Rob Hill said he is confident that the city will receive more funding to offset the COVID-19 impacts within the community.
“There is definitely a possibility that there will be some additional funds — don’t know how much, we will see in the next few weeks. I‘m pretty confident that there will be some more CARES Act funds available,” said Hill on Tuesday evening.
At the Centralia City Council meeting on June 9, the council approved the signing of an interagency agreement with the Washington State Department of Commerce to receive the $515,100 in CARES Act funding.
The city anticipated needing approximately $200,000 to cover necessary city expenses — leaving $315,000 to allocate for community assistance.
The council voted to use $50,000 for the creation of the Centralia Cares Scrip program. Finance director Bret Brodersen said at the most recent meeting that $15,000 worth of scrip dollars have been mailed out to 101 approved citizens to spend at the 21 participating local businesses. The city is still taking applications for citizens who would like to apply to receive scrip dollars. The application is available online and at city hall.
“People have been getting it and they’ve been going out and spending the money so that’s good,” said Brodersen.
In late July the council awarded the Boys & Girls Club of Lewis County is to receive $74,910 for a child care program in Centralia, Gather Church $50,000 for a utility and rent assistance program and the Centralia Downtown Association $55,750 for market expansion e-commerce grants.
In regards to the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce and Centralia Downtown Association’s proposals for the funding Mayor Pro-tem Peter Abbarno said he felt that both organizations were equally deserving of the funding.
“I think both plans have a ton of merit and as a chamber member and small business owner I have benefited from their PPE packages, and I think as we start getting to the fall and flu season the need is going to be even greater,” said Abbarno.
Mayor Sue Luond pointed out that the chamber will be able to give out about 80 PPE kits to businesses in need of supplies to remain open and the CDA will issue 16 $2,500 grants to small businesses to help pay for rent, utilities or whatever else they need help with.
Councilor Rebecca Staebler said that there is another local organization, Lewis County Together, that is giving out PPE kits and did not want to award money for a service that she felt was repetitive.
Councilor Kelly Smith Johnston responded by saying that although there is duplication in organizations providing PPE kits, the need for them is great and she felt the kits for both organizations are needed.
The motion to approve awarding $42,000 to each organization passed 6-1.
