At a Specially called meeting Friday afternoon, McCulloch County Commissioners voted to allocate over $900,000 in COVID-19 Relief funds provided to the County by the Federal Government.
Commissioners scheduled in response to concerns that language in the Federal Ceiling bill considered and passed last week by the U.S. Congress might require the County to return any un-allocated COVID-19 Funds.
In response to that prospect, Commissioners acted on Tuesday to call the Special Meeting for Friday in order to meet the requirement that Commissioners Court sessions must be announced 72 hours in advance.
Also on Tuesday, McCulloch Commissioners contacted the Texas Association of Counties about the possible requirement to return unallocated funds. After checking with the U.S. Association of Counties in Washington, the Texas group reported back to Commissioners that Counties would not be include in an recall of funds included in the bill being considered.
Since Commissioners had developed a list of projects to be considered for funding from the COVID-19 funds, they decided to proceed with a review of the projects and voted to approved allocation of the funds. They noted, however, that the list is not set in stone and can be adjusted based on circumstances. The County now has until the end of 2026 to actually spend the money.
The projects considered by Commissioners ranged from $300,000 to remodel the old jail for storage purposes to $7,600 for eight air-pack bottles for the Voca Volunteer Fire Dept.
Other projects included purchasing two patrol vehicles for the Sheriff’s Dept.; remodeling restrooms at the County Clerk’s office; renovating the Courthouse windows; repairing the sound system in the District Courtroom; purchasing a water tanker trailer, a dump truck, a wheel loader, a semi-truck and a roller packer.
