Clarendon County sets deadline for COVID-19 relief grants

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Community organizations in Clarendon County that need to apply for an American Rescue Plan Act community grant have until the start of next week.

Clarendon County Council agreed at Monday's council meeting to set Monday, Sept. 20, as the last day for organizations to apply for the ARPA grant.

The process has been running for two months ever since Clarendon County was allocated more than $6.5 million in COVID-19 relief funding in July. That same month, council voted to allocate $850,000 of the emergency monies to distribute to groups and nonprofits within in the county that have been financially impacted by the pandemic.

As of Monday, there has been a total of 102 applicants, according to Lynden Anthony, the county's chief financial officer. Anthony said the review committee has approved $726,420 in funding, and at the meeting he told council they still have 18 applications left to review. He sounded the alarm that there is about $123,000 remaining in the funding pool and advised council to set a cut-off date for applicants before the county exceeds the budgeted $850,000.

David Epperson, the county's administrator, originally requested for council to set Monday, Sept. 13, as the last day to receive applications, but Councilman Billy Richardson said they need to give more time for applicants in the community to apply for the grant. Epperson said council could extend the deadline to either sometime late this week or next week. After much deliberation, council members unanimously agreed that next Monday would be the last day for organizations to apply for the funding. Council will reopen the program if there is more funding available in the future.

Interested organizations have until 5 p.m. on Sept. 20 to submit applications to the county's administration office. The application is on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information, go to http://www.clarendoncountygov.org or call the county's administration office at (803) 435-0135.