Evansville officials announced Tuesday that federal stimulus money is on its way, and they talked about how they plan to re-open the city following the pandemic.
About $2.4 million in additional federal funding to bolster Evansville’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is coming, under the CARES Act.
Department of Metropolitan Development director Kelly Coures said that about $1.6 million is in the form of an additional Community Development block grant. $790,000 is an Emerency Solutions Grant. Coures said that if the city council approves their plan later this month, about $300,000 of the ESG grant will go to keep people in their homes.
He said, “We think that that will be the key element post-COVID-19, that there may be so many people that have lost their jobs that they may be in a position to almost become homeless.”
While stressing there’s no time line yet, Mayor Lloyd Winnecke said they have a plan to re-open the city once they get the guidance to do so.
He said, “Business assistance, testing and workplace comfort, quality of life and government operations are the four main areas that we need to focus on. We don’t know when we’ll get the guidance to re-open, but when we do, we want to be as prepared as possible.”
Deputy Mayor Steve Schaefer will chair a task force of community leaders to implement the re-opening plan.
