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The Prince Edward CARES Act Committee met Tuesday night, Sept. 1, and completed its third round of recommendations to the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors for how to spend the county’s share of the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF).

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

Of the seven members of the county’s CARES Act Committee, all were present Tuesday at the SCOPE Building in Farmville except for Farmville 701 District Supervisor Jim Wilck.

The committee’s Round 3 Recommendation will be made to the Board of Supervisors at the board’s next meeting, held Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 7 p.m. in the third-floor county board room at 111 South St. in Farmville.

The recommendation will include the following:

• To aid county businesses hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prince Edward County Industrial Development Authority should receive $200,000 to apply to the Economic Recovery Grant Program.

• To aid nonprofit organizations in the county, the board should establish a nonprofit sustainability program that will have $100,000 on hand, with $5,000 going per entity. The eligibility criteria have not yet been established. Entities include Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center, Piedmont Habitat For Humanity, Heart of Virginia Free Clinic, Sunrise Learning Center, Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce, Waterworks Players and Southside Virginia Family YMCA.

• To aid organizations like Prince Edward County Meals on Wheels, the board should allocate $50,000 in additional funding to the nonprofit food program.

(None of the nonprofit applications were acted on by the committee Tuesday.)

• To provide for laptops and laptop cases, Prince Edward County Public Schools should receive $84,400.

• To provide for audio/visual equipment in the county board room, Prince Edward County should receive a certain amount. The committee will ask the board to allocate the placeholder amount of $35,000, with more specific appropriations to come later.

• To provide for audio/visual equipment for courtrooms, the circuit court judge should receive a certain amount. The committee will ask the board to allocate the placeholder amount of $25,000, with more specific appropriations to come later.

• To provide a LUCAS chest compression device for first responders, the Farmville Volunteer Fire Department should receive $15,000.   

• To provide for foggers, expenses and COVID payroll, the Town of Farmville should receive $14,215.80.

• To provide for COVID expenses, Piedmont Regional Jail should receive $2,232.36.

• To provide for water bottle filler and filters at the Virginia’s Heartland Regional Visitor Center, Prince Edward County should receive $1,962.

• To provide for a ZOLL monitor, Hampden-Sydney Volunteer Fire Department should pursue the Rescue Squad Assistance Fund.

The CARES Act Committee met for more than an hour and 15 minutes Tuesday and made plans for their next meeting as well.

“These members realize that the extraordinary circumstances require them to put extraordinary effort and time into this, and you can see that they are,” Assistant County Administrator Sarah Puckett said. “There is a lot of deliberative consideration and thought and trying to figure out the best way to solve the problems of the Prince Edward-Farmville community.”