Here’s how Bellingham is spending its $2.7 million in COVID-19 relief
Bellingham moved $900,000 into its general fund budget this week to help businesses and others across Whatcom County struggling in the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s money that will be reimbursed with funds approved by Congress in March 2020 under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
Moving the money into the general fund allows the city to track its spending separately for reimbursement, said Andy Asbjornsen, finance director.
On Monday, July 6, the City Council approved $500,000 for business grants, $200,000 for child-care providers and $200,000 for food security programs.
“These businesses are — they’re hurting,” Councilman Dan Hammill said.
Funds will provide grants to help businesses and non-profit groups accommodate social distancing requirements and provide safety for customers and employees, and to help child-care providers hard-hit by stay-home orders.
Bellingham is also spending $500,000 of its CARES Act money to move the temporary drop-in shelter from Bellingham High School to the former Public Market retail site, and to pay for the cost of additional technology to allow more employees to work from home during the pandemic.
Under the CARES Act, Whatcom County was awarded $12 million, Bellingham $2.7 million and the other cities were awarded $1.2 million total.
But the county and all the cities are pooling their money to benefit the entire county, said Tara Sundin, Bellingham’s economic development manager, in a June 16 presentation.
Councilman Michel Lilliquist said the entire county’s financial health is interconnected and that it makes sense for Bellingham to pool part of its share of the money.
“We, as a city, are only using less than half of those dollars that are coming to us to help our extraordinary costs. We’re turning and pushing the other, larger half of those right out the door to help with housing and human services, to help with economic response, to help with child care. ” Lilliquist said during the June 16 presentation.
“The entire package makes far more sense than our package makes in isolation,” he said. “The idea is not so much to benefit that (one) business but to benefit every single one of us — customers, employees, the entire economy, to keep things moving.”
Sundin said funds also will benefit a range of child-care programs.
“We are looking at supporting small operators and midsize operators as well, those that have been operating but also those that need to get back online,” Sundin told the council. “And then some of the larger ones like the Y and Kids World, but we’re not looking at just funding one — probably a lot.”
