County Commission Chairman Matt Brooks said businesses can begin filing applications for CARES Act grants tomorrow (July 27) at 8 a.m. File Photo by Terry Witt.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Business owners in Levy County that lost money from the coronavirus, including county employees that own a business, can apply for CARES Act federal relief Monday starting at 8 a.m.

            The county commission originally planned to begin accepting CARES Act business applications beginning July 22 but the date was changed to July 27 when the state sent changes to the wording of the application form.

            Nearly $2 million of CARES Act funding is available to local businesses.

            Applications must be received by the county no later than 4 p.m. on Aug. 28. Questions about the application should be emailed to CARES@levycounty.org. Completed online applications and required documents must be emailed to the same address.

            People who wish to pick up a paper application can do so at the Levy County Commission office at 310 School Street, Bronson Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. They can hand-deliver the completed applications to the commission office but the county would prefer working through emails.

            The money will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. County employees who own business will compete for the same money as business owners that have no county government income.

            Eligible business owners can receive a $1,500 federal CARES grant if they are self-employed (1 employee), $5,000 if they have 2-10 employees, $10,000 if they have 11-25 employees and $15,000 if they have 26-50 employees.

            County employees who have questions about their eligibility are being advised by County Attorney Anne Bast Brown to contact the Florida Commission on Ethics for clarification.

            Commission Chairman Matt Brooks said Sunday the decision to include county employees who own private businesses in the program was done by consensus at the July 21 board meeting. He said himself along with County Commissioner John Meeks and Commissioner Mike Joyner favored allowing employees to participate in the program if they owned a business.

            “We want to make sure everybody that’s eligible gets the opportunity to do it, especially county employees. They should not be deemed ineligible. Anyone who has a business should be able to apply for it,” Brooks said.

            County Commissioners are ineligible for the money. Several own businesses including Brooks, Commissioner John Meeks, and Commissioner Rock Meeks but none are eligible for this money.

            Brooks said the 12 most heavily populated counties that received a direct appropriation of CARES Act money earlier this year have already dealt with this issue of county employees being eligible for the CARES Act funding.                   

            He said Polk and Putnam counties have a CARES Act process in place similar to what Levy County is using.

            “They didn’t rule them, (county employees) out. They didn’t specifically state in their guidance they couldn’t, so unless the state does something crazy and tries to come after these people, which I highly doubt; the whole intent of the program is economic stimulus,” Brooks said.

            A reporter suggested some people might argue that the private sector is being forced to compete for CARES Act money with business owners who already draw a county paycheck.

            Brooks said he doesn’t know how many employees are members of families that might benefit from the CARES Act funding, or actually own a small business of their own, but he said: “a broad determination” came about as a result of the county attorney participating in different conference calls and talking to outside counsel, that county employees should be included.

            “I don’t disagree that some people will be competing for it, but any time you put in a restriction, you’ve just put another roadblock in the process and the goal is to get this money out as fast as we can get it out,” Brooks said. “We’ve got until Dec. 31 to get everything handled and if we start putting restrictions on, things of that nature, all of a sudden it becomes more complicated and it’s counterproductive to what the whole goal of the process is.”

            The roughly $2 million dollars of CARES Act funding that the county is preparing to distribute to Levy County businesses is just 25 percent of what the county is eligible to receive from the program.

            “That’s not the only shot we’re going to have at relief funding. There’s still 75 percent of funding out there that we’re still seeking guidance on how we’re going to distribute that by December, and that’s an even bigger pot of money,” Brooks said.

            Brooks said he is hopeful the ongoing issues with the coronavirus will end soon. He said the federal government has already spent trillions of dollars and Congress is talking about another big relief package.  He wonders where all the money will come from to fund these programs.

            He said the mandatory order in Alachua County to wear masks in public places, including stores, isn’t in place in Levy County. Masks are a choice in Levy County. However, Wal-Mart now requires masks. Chiefland has a Wal-Mart store. He said the mask issue is giving rise to confrontations between people in stores

            “There are people who are wearing masks who are chastising people who aren’t, and there are people who aren’t wearing masks running around and calling people sheep and screaming at them in Winn Dixie. I think, man, I’ve got to do my part and not belittle people for their choice. I just want choice,” Brooks said.

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting July 21, 2020; Posted July 26, 2020