By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The city of Hays will receive the same amount as it requested from the $5.7 million Ellis County CARES Act, according to Toby Dougherty, city manager.
Hays applied for two portions of the CARES money — reimbursement and direct aid.
"The reimbursement component is for the governmental entities (counties, cities and schools) for expenses they've already incurred as a result of the pandemic," Dougherty explained. "We applied for and received $58,000 of that."
A total of $500,187.82 was recommended as reimbursements to Ellis County, Hays, Ellis, Victoria, Hays USD 489, Ellis USD 388 and NCK Technical College.
The additional direct aid of $230,000 going to Hays will be used for pandemic-related projects to be completed before the end of the year.
A portion of the city's direct aid award — $9,000 — will go to the Hays Public Library for items to ensure the safety of patrons.
Most of the city's aid will be used to enhance teleworking capabilities, Dougherty said.
"We did have a fairly significant portion of that involved in running fiber optic cable out to the airport so we can more easily staff the airport fire station.
"One of the pandemic tactics Fire Chief Ryan Hagans has taken is to split the fire fighting shifts into two shifts, one out at the airport fire station and one at the downtown station.
"That way if there's a localized outbreak, we don't lose a whole shift of firefighters," he said.
Without fiber to the airport fire station, technology is currently limited and constrained.
"So, part of our request was enhancing the fiber," Dougherty said, "and then the networking capabilities to the airport fire station to make it more full-time staff ready."
Vice Mayor Sandy Jacobs called the fiber project "forward thinking."
"We're thinking in the future, not just what's happening this afternoon," she said.