2020 was a tough year for the Park County government, but an influx of cash from the federal government’s COVID-19 relief legislation significantly cushioned the blow.

Funding from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act covered more than $1.4 million worth of salaries and benefits that the county was going to pay regardless of the pandemic. The county was also able to order more than a quarter-million dollars’ worth of new electronics last month — including five digital whiteboards at $26,680 apiece — upgrade a breakroom and pay for extra cleaning supplies with the CARES Act cash.

In total, the Park County government received nearly $1.76 million in Wyoming Coronavirus Relief Fund grants through the State Loan and Investment Board. And commissioners could have gotten considerably more money.

Under the state board’s allocation formula, a total of roughly $3.1 million was earmarked for Park County, but commissioners decided to leave roughly $1.4 million on the table.

“That’s all we want,” then-Commissioner Jake Fulkerson said in November. 

At that fall meeting, commissioners allowed Cody Regional Health and Powell Valley Healthcare to seek the county’s leftover funding.

Salaries and benefits

The U.S. Treasury allowed counties to use the CARES Act funds to pay certain employees’ salaries and benefits during the pandemic. For instance, Park County could have used the federal dollars to pay patrol deputies and administrators — including Sheriff Scott Steward — from March 1 to Dec. 31. Under the guidelines, counties could be fully reimbursed for payroll expenses if the person spent at least 51% of their time dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

But commissioners noted that deputies continued to respond to a variety of calls and were not fully consumed by the pandemic.

“I realize the mindset is, ‘The money’s there, we might as well get it,’” Commissioner Lee Livingston said at the Aug. 4 meeting. “I have issues with that.”

Commissioners Dossie Overfield and Joe Tilden agreed.

“It’s damn difficult to turn down $2 million if it’s offered to you, especially where we are today,” Tilden said, noting the county’s tight budget. 

However, the then-chairman said he couldn’t in good conscience claim the deputies’ full salaries as being COVID-related.

“It’s all taxpayer money and I think, ‘Well, if we don’t get it somebody’s going to get it.’ The money’s there,” Tilden said. “But that doesn’t make it right.”

There was still some lingering reluctance about giving up the cash. Fulkerson noted the federal dollars could temporarily close the county’s roughly $2 million budget shortfall. And Commissioner Lloyd Thiel noted that Yellowstone Regional Airport received $11.7 million in CARES funding — enough to cover four years of operating expenses plus various construction projects.

“That ain’t right, either,” Thiel said. “But I’m sure damn glad they got it; they can do a lot with it.”

In the end, commissioners unanimously decided to only seek reimbursement for 25% of patrol deputies’ salaries and benefits, leaving more than $758,000 on the table. Meanwhile, they used the CARES dollars to cover 50% of detention deputies’ pay for the final 10 months of the year and 20% of dispatchers’. The county was also reimbursed at differing levels for other workers, depending on how much time they were estimated to spend dealing with COVID-19 issues: 100% of the salaries and benefits of a couple Park County Public Health workers, 10% for county custodians and 5% for maintenance, information technology and some landfill workers.

All told, the CARES Act dollars helped cover the salaries of more than 80 different employees, to the tune of $1,421,305.41, according to numbers crunched by the Tribune.

That cash is effectively a straight shot in the arm for the county budget, with federal dollars covering expenses that the county government was going to have to pay with or without the pandemic.

Additional projects

Other CARES Act dollars, however, have helped cover extra costs that are solely due to the COVID-19. For example, roughly $36,600 went toward sneeze guards, gloves and face masks and cleaning products like hand soap, carpet detergent, disinfectants, wipes and a fogger.

The county was also able to set up a new breakroom at the Powell landfill, buy 18 new tables for Homeland Security ($4,380.12) and order new technology.

Park County Landfill Office Manager Sandie Morris said the two machine operators at the Powell site have been forced to do their paperwork, eat their lunches and take breaks in a small shack that “almost looks like an outhouse.”

“When you start putting multiple people in that room, it’s a bad deal,” Morris said, so the county is using about $4,000 of CARES Act funding to refurbish an old gate shack into a building that “gives them room to do a little social distancing.”

As for the $288,654 worth of tech purchases, Park County Chief Information Officer Mike Conners said they’re intended to keep county departments connected in the event employees have to work remotely.

The list included various computing equipment that could be set up at employees’ residences if they’re forced to work from home:

• 30 Dell computer towers ($26,788)

• 20 Dell monitors with soundbars ($4,334.20)

• 20 LaserJet Pro printers ($10,101.60)

• 20 Fujitsu scanners ($8,278.60)

• 20 battery back-up systems for the computers, with extra batteries ($7,893)

• 10 Dell laptops ($6,254.80).

The big ticket items were a set of Microsoft Surface Hubs and large, ultra-high definition televisions manufactured by Samsung. The Surface Hubs are interactive digital whiteboards that operate like a computer and can be used for video conferencing; the county ordered five of Microsoft’s 85-inch models and three of the 50-inch editions, plus a half-dozen 85-inch TV and carts to hold all of the new displays. In total, the cost for the 14 screens and carts came to $205,000.

“The whole idea was we would park those in places so we could stay in communication and collaborate” in the event of a shutdown, Conners said.

He added that the equipment cost “way more” than what the county would have spent without the federal funding.

The Surface Hubs in particular — which go for $26,679.91 for the 85-inch versions — are “just insane,” Conners said, “and people are grabbing them so fast you can’t get them.”

With CARES Act funding needing to be spent soon, the county could be forced to cancel portions of its orders if shipping is delayed. Though Congress has since extended the deadline, county officials hurried to place their orders last month, believing they had to spend their share of the cash by the end of December.

Conners said he’s “not real keen” on buying a bunch of stuff just because the federal dollars are available.

“It’s all kind of crazy to me,” he said, “but it’s a crazy time.”

He also believes the new technology will be put to use, even if the county never has to shut down again. Now that people are getting a taste of the convenience of holding and attending meetings and doing some business remotely, Conners thinks they’ll want to continue to have that option.

“I have no doubt we’re going to get our use out of it,” he said, saying he sees the county’s bigger challenge coming when all of the equipment needs to be replaced without federal aid.

“That,” Conners said, “will be the bummer of it when it comes.”