Labette County will receive $3.9 million in federal COVID-19 recovery funding through the state, Labette County commissioners heard Monday. Charlie Morse, Labette County Emergency Preparedness director, updated commissioners on the federal money distributed by the Kansas Office of Recovery. The federal government allocated $1.25 billion to Kansas from the CARES Act. Counties with a population of more than 500,000 received a share of this pool directly. The rest of the counties will receive an apportioned share based on population. Gov. Laura Kelly formed SPARK, the Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas Task Force, to help develop a way to distribute the money. SPARK came up with a three-phased approach. The first round will provide $400 million in direct aid to counties. The second phase will include $310 to $525 million for public and private entities in August. The third phase will provide $9 to $324 million to public and private entities in October, Morse told commissioners.
(Read more: Parsons Sun)