Daily Sitka Sentinel

CARES Fund Sharing On Assembly Agenda

By Sentinel Staff

The Assembly will consider a number of questions on the handling of CARES Act funds for the community at a special meeting Thursday night.

Sitka is slated to receive some $14 million under the federal program to offset economic losses of individuals and businesses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Assembly has already set aside up to $4.5 million to help qualified individuals, businesses and non-profits pay their electric bills, and for fishermen experiencing “economic hardship due to the COVID-19 public health emergency” to get subsidies on their harbor moorage bills.

On May 30 the Assembly approved creation of a working group to draft a plan for distributing the funds. Since then the group has proposed a broad outline of how to spend the federal money, and this will be the subject of the Thursday Assembly meeting.

There is only one item on the agenda: “Discussion / Direction / Decision on CARES Act funding program design and associated applications.”

The working group members are John Leach, Lisa Gassman, Kevin Knox, Kevin Mosher, Jay Sweeney, Melissa Haley, Brian Hanson, Garry White, and Melissa Henshaw. Knox and Mosher are elected Assembly members, Gassman is general manager of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and Garry White is the director of the Sitka Economic Development Association, who also represents the Sitka Economic Resiliency Task Force. The other five are city employees.

The memo City Administrator John Leach sent to the Assembly asks for guidance on funding amounts proposed by the working group in each of the six proposed grant categories, and on procedures for deciding the amounts awarded to applicants.

The group is proposing six categories for funding:

1. utilities and moorage ($4.5 million).

2. businesses and non-profits ($5 million).

3. new city-funded programs, such as childcare, food security, housing support, mental health support ($1.75 million).

4. city impact/mitigation, such as internet technology, protection services, CARES spending consultation ($1.75 million).

5. Sitka School District request for Americorps volunteers and laptops ($430,000).

6. contingency for unknown expenses ($627,653).

There will be two opportunities at Thursday’s meeting for the public to speak under Persons to be Heard.

The full information packet is available on the cityofsitka.com website, under “Assembly Agenda and Minutes.”

Also in the meeting packet are proposed application forms for the utility and moorage subsidy programs. The draft one-page forms require only a few pieces of information for identification and qualification purposes.

The applicant in the documents needs to check the appropriate boxes, and sign the application, attesting they have incurred and continue to face “economic hardships” due to the COVID-19 emergency.

The School Board’s $430,000 request would pay for 12 additional Americorps volunteers and laptop purchases for high school students.

Seven of the new Americorps volunteers “would provide academic tutoring to students during the school day to remediate lost learning from this spring due to COVID-19 and the limitations of remote learning; four would provide mental health support to students most impacted by the trauma and isolation resulting from the pandemic;  and one would be a lead volunteer so we would not need to increase our long-term staff to manage the increase in personnel,” said the request from District Superintendent Mary Wegner.

Under the plan proposed by the working group, businesses and non-profits with 2019 revenues up to $20,000 could apply for grants up to $1,000. Those with 2019 revenue over $500,000 would be able to apply for up to $100,000.