Nye County accepting applications for coronavirus block grant

Nye County is currently accepting applications for the second and third rounds of Community Development Block Grant funding that have been made available to communities across the United States as part of the CARES Act.

Nye County Grants Administrator Samantha Kramer gave an overview of the grant program at the Nye County Commission’s Jan. 4 meeting, explaining that the county is allowed to submit two applications on its own behalf and sponsor two additional applications on behalf of other entities, for a total of four applications. She also added that the particular program that she was presenting that morning is somewhat different than the Community Development Block Grant program that the county has utilized in the past, due to the fact that these two rounds of funding are specific to mitigating COVID-19.

“This morning I am presenting rounds two and three of the Community Development Block Grant - Coronavirus, which is known as CDBG-CV. HUD and CDBG have received funding through the CARES Act specifically for the prevention, preparation for and response to the coronavirus,” Kramer stated. “Round two of CDBG-CV received a formula allocation in the amount of $9,963,639 with $208,221 directly allocated to Nye County. Round three of CDBG-CV received a formula allocation in the amount of $2,474,984. Nye County did not receive a direct allocation in round three but can apply through a competitive process.”

Projects to be submitted for the CDBG-CV funding must meet one of three national objectives and must be an eligible activity. “The national objectives are to benefit low-to moderate-income persons and households; to aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight; to meet community development needs having an urgency when other sources of funding are not available,” Kramer detailed. “Eligible activities are buildings and improvement, including public facilities; assistance to businesses, including special economic development assistance; provision of new or quantifiably increased public services; and planning, capacity, building and technical assistance.”

Projects must be “shovel ready” and all construction projects will require an environmental assessment to be conducted.

The backup information included with the agenda item provided a variety of examples of eligible activities, including rehabbing buildings to use as infectious disease treatment sites, providing working capital assistance to small businesses to enable them to retain jobs held by low-to moderate-income persons, training to expand the pool of health care workers who can treat disease, provide testing services, gather data and much more.

Kramer said anyone with questions regarding whether a particular project would be eligible can contact her directly to discuss their proposal. Kramer can be reached at sakramer@co.nye.nv.us or 775-751-7091. Preliminary applications can be found online at www.nyecounty.net/911/Community-Development-Block-Grants

Presentation of potential projects will be conducted on Jan. 20 at the Nye County Commission meeting in Pahrump and again on Feb. 2 at the commission meeting in Tonopah. On March 2, commissioners will prioritize the eligible projects and determine which will be selected to move forward.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com