Ward County has ended its COVID-19 emergency declaration. Commissioners voted Tuesday to rescind the March 17 decision.
The declaration gave the county access to emergency funds to pay for disaster-related expenses like personal protective equipment. But, the county did not need to use the emergency fund and now, those funds are inaccessible.
“So, any of the grants that we apply for in the future, we can still apply for because we fall under the state’s emergency declaration. So, all of our COVID-related expenses that can still fall under that, but we don’t need our own emergency declaration for that,” said Jennifer Wiechmann, emergency manager, Ward County.
Wiechmann said most departments were able to purchase things within their existing budgets.
