Centralia City Hall is located at 118 W. Maple St. in Centralia.
The Centralia City Council approved the signing of an interagency agreement with the Washington State Department of Commerce in order to have access to a maximum of $515,100 in coronavirus relief funding.
The city will be eligible for reimbursement for CARES Act eligible expenses incurred due to COVID-19 during the period from March 1 through Oct. 31, 2020.
“Expenditures must be used for necessary actions taken to respond to the public health emergency. These may include expenditures incurred to allow the local government to respond directly to the emergency, such as by addressing medical or public health needs, as well as expenditures incurred to respond to second-order effects of the emergency, such as by providing economic support to those suffering from unemployment or business interruptions due to COVID-19-related business closures,” states the contract between the Department of Commerce and the City of Centralia.
The specific use of the funds in the city will be discussed and decided upon at a later date but Councilor Kelly Smith Johnston suggested that the council consider using the coronavirus relief funding to support small businesses, seniors and childcare.
Smith Johnston recognized that schools may not resume in the traditional sense in the fall which will make going to work difficult if there are not enough childcare options. She said that after speaking with Lori Fast, Centralia School Board president, and Lisa Grant, Centralia School District Superintendent beginning on July 1, the school district is open to partnering with the city to explore childcare options.
“We will have a real challenge in our community for families. Parents are going to need to go to work and there won’t be many safe places for their kids to be,” said Smith Johnston. “I think it could be a great message for our community to have the city and the school district partnering together to do something meaningful for families.”
She also suggested that Centralia consider providing some of the funds to citizens as stimulus money that can only be spent at designated local businesses in an effort to boost the local economy and help out small business owners.
City Manager Rob Hill said that city staff will begin work on a plan on how to spend the funds before the Oct. 31 deadline.
“What I think I’m hearing is a request for staff to put together an analysis here to see what we can use those for and to make sure we take care of our own needs. If there’s some surplus funding there we will explore these other options. We will certainly do that and bring it back (to council) quickly,” said Hill.
