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The fourth round of allocations recommended by the county’s CARES Act Committee totaled $76,670 and was unanimously approved by the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, Oct. 13.

The largest allocation in this round, $38,350, went to the Farmville Emergency Communications Center to provide for a command post and two laptops.

“This would provide for remote dispatch capabilities,” Prince Edward Acting County Administrator Sarah Elam Puckett said Tuesday. “This is in the event that dispatch, the 911 center, should have a COVID-positive employee. The potential is that one employee could wipe out a couple of shifts if they happen to be in the overlap shift between, let’s say, the day shift and the evening shift.”

She added that this allocation is also an investment that will outlive the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If there was any incident that affected the town office building, if the 911 center had to relocate under emergency circumstances, the 911 director would have this equipment staged and ready to immediately redeploy the communications that cover Prince Edward County and the Town of Farmville.”

The second-largest allocation in this round of recommendations went to SCOPE/Meals on Wheels. Puckett said the organization had a lost revenue request through the nonprofit food program of $20,000 so that it could meet the ever-increasing demand for meal delivery.

The third-largest allocation in this round went to Virginia Smoove Rydaz MC/SC, an organization that provides help to those in need, specifically around the Thanksgiving holiday.

“They were not able to fundraise, and they’ve asked for $11,997, which would come out of the nonprofit sustainability and food program,” Puckett said.

Another recipient in this round was the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library.

“They’re requesting $4,131.16 for masks and cleaning supplies so that they can keep the library open and safe,” Puckett said.

She stated the Heart of Virginia Free Clinic made a very nominal request of $1,392 for personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and lost revenue.

The county’s department of emergency management also received $800 for pop-up tents.

Puckett said the tents would be used for point of distribution for vaccinations.

She noted these tents will also be useful in other scenarios.

“If we ever had to set up a command post or anything to support any kind of incident in the county, these would belong to the county and could support emergency services,” she said.

Prince Edward has received $3,978,774 from the federal government as the county’s share of the Coronavirus Relief Fund, which was established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.

The county’s CARES Act Committee has now allocated more than $2.7 million of that total, leaving a balance of $1.2 million left to be spent.

The CARES Act requires that the payments from the funds only be used to cover expenses that were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on Dec. 30, 2020.

“We have made the request to Sen. (Tim) Kaine to try and have that Dec. 30 deadline extended,” Puckett said. “I think many senators and congressmen are working on that, but he was aware, and he acknowledged our request.”