The selection of the City of Knox as one of the first grant recipients in the state’s COVID-19 Response Program came as a surprise to Mayor Dennis Estok. The city was one of only 13 communities selected for the first round out of 108 who’d expressed interest and one of just four to be awarded the maximum $250,000.
Estok recently told the board of works that with the number of applicants and limited funding, he hadn’t thought the city had a chance in the first round. Then a few days later, State Representative Jim Pressel congratulated him on the city’s selection. “I said, ‘What’s going on?’” Estok recalled. “He said, ‘You guys were awarded $250,000 for the grant that you put in.’ I said, ‘When in the hell did they do that?!’ because they give no dates when they were going to award or anything. It was just, ‘Get your applications in.’ And he said, ‘Listen to the governor’s conference this afternoon.’”
The $250,000 will be used “to provide working capital to local businesses for job retention.” Estok added that the city was expected to get its money last week. That’s in spite of the fact that no public hearing had been held, the Office of Community and Rural Affairs hadn’t finalized how businesses would qualify, and the state hadn’t even asked where to send the money, as of the board of works meeting.
The mayor said the city would put together an application process once the criteria are worked out. “I know one of them is you’ve got to do an income survey, so all your help has to do an income survey,” Estok explained. “You’ve got to meet the low-to-medium income [requirements] percentage-wise.”
As a next step, the required public hearing for the grant will be held by teleconference today at 5:00 p.m. Residents can comment by calling 515-604-9094 and entering access code 125-829.
