photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St., is pictured on Sept. 23, 2021.

Douglas County opened the next phase of its American Rescue Plan Act funding request process this week.

The county began accepting grant applications Tuesday, with about $21 million in coronavirus relief funding left to allocate to agencies for qualifying expenditures occurring between March 3, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2024. The deadline for submitting an application is Monday, May 2, at 5 p.m.

The process kicked off last month, when the Douglas County Commission first discussed the more than 100 letters of intent for funding it had received from county agencies. Those preliminary requests totaled nearly $77 million, almost four times more funding than what the county has left to distribute. After discussing ways they could narrow those requests down, the commissioners approved a draft request for proposals form at another meeting earlier this month. That’s the form made available to the public this week.

Projects should fall within one of two broad categories, according to the county:

• Public health — This category could include COVID vaccination, testing, contact tracing, prevention in congregate settings, or personal protective equipment expenditures. Assistance to small businesses; nonprofits and impacted industries; community violence interventions; mental health and substance use services; and other public health services are also listed for this category.

• Negative economic impacts — That includes household assistance; unemployment assistance; healthy childhood environments; long-term housing security; housing support; social determinants of health; medical facilities for disproportionately impacted communities; addressing educational disparities; assistance to small businesses; assistance to nonprofits; and aid to impacted industries.

The application is available on the county’s website.

The county was allocated $23.7 million in ARPA funding, and the Douglas County Commission has already set aside about $2.3 million of that amount for emergency purchases. Of that portion, approximately $480,000 has been requested and approved for items such as rent and utility assistance, a homelessness needs assessment and COVID testing.

For questions about the ARPA application, contact county Finance Manager Brooke Sauer at bsauer@douglascountyks.org or 785-330-2863, extension 5863.