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Summit County awarded $1.8 million in COVID-19 relief

Colorado awarded Summit County $1.8 million in relief funds targeted at the novel coronavirus pandemic.

County Manager Scott Vargo announced the award at the Summit County Board of Health meeting Tuesday, Nov. 17. Vargo said the funds come out of a budget surplus from the first round of CARES Act funding in March.

The state used its allocation of that surplus to award funding to counties that demonstrated the most need. Vargo said the $1.8 million was the full amount the county requested.



The funds, which work as a reimbursement, will go toward paying extra staff hired to do contact tracing and other COVID-19 related efforts.

“We’ve been waiting a couple of weeks now to hear word on what we might be awarded,” Vargo said. “To get our full request approved was fantastic.”



Unlike the first round of funding, which was allocated based on resident population, this round of funding was allocated based on need. For that reason, Summit County received more than the $1.4 million it did in the first round. The county’s award was one of the highest in the state, Vargo said.

“We did a really great job of making that case that we’re serving a lot more people than our census numbers of how many people live here,” Summit County Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier said.

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