32 - Reimbursing Paris-Lamar County Board of Health for certain Covid-19 related expenses

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Item No. 32 TO: Mayor & City Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Gene Anderson, Finance Director SUBJECT: CARES ACT -CORONAVIRUS RELIEF FUND DATE: July 27, 2020 BACKGROUND: Congress passed the CARES ACT to provide needed resources to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The City of Paris has been allocated up to $1,393,150 for COVID-19 related expenses that occur between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020. The Act also allows governmental entities to use their resources in support other governmental entities who are also working to fight this virus. STATUS OF ISSUE: The City has received a request from the Paris -Lamar County Health District for financial assistance in two areas related to COVID-19. First, their eight clinical staff employees who work on COVID-19 issues are working many extra hours beyond their regular duties on contact tracing. In under four months they have logged 768 hours in such efforts at a cost of $23,237. Between now and December 30`x', the health district estimates that it will need to spend another $43,000 in this area. This would include hiring two temporary employees to assist with the contact tracing. Second, Lamar County Commissioners have agreed to purchase 900 COVID- 19 testing kits at a cost of $36,900 from Abbott. Abbott will provide the Health District with a Coronavirus testing machine that uses the latest molecular technology. The machine can provide positive results in 5 minutes and negative results in 13 minutes. The Health District requests that the City also cover the cost of 830 additional test kits which have a 2 year shelf life. The Health Districts tests people who cannot otherwise afford to be tested. Lamar County is also spending $500,000 of their CARES ACT funding for what amounts to a mobile testing site. This includes tents, generators, air conditioning units, and trailers to haul everything to the needed location. BUDGET: In summary, the Paris -Lamar County Health District is requesting up to $100,000 from the City's CARES funding to reimburse them for personnel costs incurred for contact tracing (approximately $66,000) and for testing kits (approximately $34,000).