Covid grants awarded to Westmoreland fire, EMS companies

Additional covid relief money is headed to Westmoreland County emergency medical service companies and volunteer fire departments left out of previous funding rounds last year.

County commissioners have approved more than $600,000 in grants, including $343,500 to 16 fire companies and $60,000 to four rescue units, to cover coronavirus-related expenses and lost fundraising revenues in 2020.

The latest round comes a month after commissioners awarded $615,000 in grants to 35 ambulance and fire departments as part of the final dispersal of $31.5 million in federal funds allocated to the county as part of last year’s CARES Act stimulus package.

The new grants finalized Monday were awarded to nonprofit organizations that were not eligible to receive the covid relief grants last year under guidelines set up by the federal government. Commissioners said these grants were funded through money from the county budget.

“We decided to help out all fire departments. It was a collective decision, and this is what we are doing to make our fire departments as whole as possible,” Commissioner Sean Kertes said.

Commissioners said guidelines limited covid relief grants to organizations with specific nonprofit designations set by the Internal Revenue Service, a requirement that left a handful of local fire companies and ambulance services ineligible. This week’s awards were to ensure all local rescue organizations were treated evenly.

“These are volunteers,” Commissioner Doug Chew said. “Why should we punish them for what happened when that organization became a nonprofit all those years ago?”

Officials said no additional covid grants are planned.

Commissioners during the second half of 2020 doled out $6.4 million in grants to local small businesses, another $1.8 million to nonprofit organizations and $906,000 to municipalities for covid relief. They also awarded $5 million to Excela Health.

The remaining federal stimulus funds were allocated to cover the county’s costs associated with the pandemic, including $2.8 million for supplies such as personal protective equipment, $1.3 million for computer upgrades to allow staff to work remotely and another $12.3 million to pay salaries of front-line workers and additional pandemic pay for employees in departments exposed to higher risks of contracting the virus.

Another $134,000 was used to to install mobile internet hot spots at local libraries.