Whitfield County commissioners award some $1 million to local nonprofits

Dec. 14—The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners on Monday awarded some $1 million to nine local nonprofit organizations.

"We just can't do everything," said board Chairman Jevin Jensen. "These nonprofits do things the county can't do because of state or federal regulation, or they can do them for less money because they have low overhead."

The commissioners voted 4-0 to accept recommendations from a committee formed earlier this year to determine how to spend some $1 million from the county's federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds it has made available to help local nonprofits that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ARPA Committee was composed of County Clerk Blanca Cardona, Sheriff Scott Chitwood (vice chairman), county Public Information Officer Valeria Molina, Superior Court Judge Cindy Morris (chairman), grant administrator Carol Roberts, County Administrator Robert Sivick and County Attorney Robert Smalley.

The funds were awarded to local nonprofit organizations under three broad categories:

—Programs responding to the public health emergency.

—Programs responding to the economic impact the pandemic and economic shutdown had.

—Reimbursement of revenues lost and reimbursement of COVID-19-related expenses.

The money was awarded to:

—Boy Scouts of America Northwest Georgia Council, $75,000, staffing.

—Chattanooga Area Food Bank, $100,000, food.

—Chattanooga Area Food Bank, $75,000, building.

—City of Refuge Dalton, $52,956, mobile food pantry.

—City of Refuge Dalton, $20,000, workforce development.

—Cross Plains Community Partner, $88,471, revenue reimbursement.

—Friendship House, $1,187, expense reimbursement.

—Latin American Association, $60,000, basic needs.

—Northwest Georgia Family Crisis Center, $140,000, emergency shelter.

—Northwest Georgia Family Crisis Center, $51,244, revenue reimbursement.

—RossWoods Adult Day Services, $289,039, revenue reimbursement.

—Whitfield County-Dalton Day Care Center, $63,241, revenue reimbursement.

Jensen said the county had 19 organizations apply and their requests totaled $3.1 million.

Morris spoke about how the committee made its decisions. She said all applicants had to show proof that the Internal Revenue Service has recognized them as a 501©(3) tax-exempt organization and that they are registered with the Georgia secretary of state's office and are located in and serve Whitfield County.

"We didn't take anybody's word for anything," she said.

All applicants were required to submit three years of financial statements and three years of tax returns. Preference was given to organizations whose financial statements had been audited. They had to present detailed explanations of how the money would be used.

Morris said the committee designed a scoring method to determine how the money would be awarded. For organizations seeking funds for programming, the scoring involved issues such as how many people would be served, the organization's experience with federal funding and its capabilities.

In the public comment period at the end of the meeting, Friendship House Director Mary Thelma Norris asked about "the discrepancy of the funding" between Friendship House and the other organizations that received money.

"It's a big difference," she said.

Sivick asked her to call him to set up a meeting to go over how the agencies were scored by the committee when determining funding.