Todd Fiscal Court is joining an effort to assist local businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many businesses had to shut down for several weeks and are continuing to see impacts of lost revenue to the pandemic while bills still come every month. Todd Fiscal Court approved putting $25,000 in federal CARES Act funding toward grants for small businesses that need help. Judge-Executive Todd Mansfield says Elkton and Guthrie are expected to contribute $20,000 each and Novelis has committed $10,000.
He says small businesses will apply for the grants and he hopes to see a lot of applications.
Specific amounts of grants haven’t been set, but a range of one to two thousand dollars was discussed.
Magistrates also committed $1,600 in CARES funding to purchase a new camera and audio system for the fiscal court room to produce a better webcast of its meetings on Facebook Live than what is currently provided. Emergency Management Director Daniel Smith says the video and audio quality should be much better than the system in place now.
South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council Director Carter Hendricks spoke to magistrates for about 30 minutes, emphasizing the region’s workforce and quality of life as among its best assets in recruiting new industry. He praised Todd County for landing Novelis in Guthrie—calling it the biggest industrial “get” for the region in the last five years.
In other action, Todd County joined Christian and Trigg counties in applying for the annual $2,500 spay and neuter matching grant program.