Kendall County Board reaches consensus on initial non-profit grant criteria

Kendall County Board members agreed upon a preliminary list of criteria for non-profits to be eligible for a first portion of federal stimulus grants available through the American Rescue Plan, though final approval won’t be ready until the fall.

Officials decided that eligible non-profits must either be based in Kendall County or serve its residents in order to complete a grant application. Closed non-profits must plan to reopen within 3 months to be eligible for the funds. Groups that pass the pre-screen will then be able to finish the rest of the application through an online portal.

“My goal was the first money that we get we can hand it to those groups that are based here and working out of here,” said County Board Vice Chairman Matt Kellogg during a meeting Thursday, June 24, in Yorkville. “That’s the struggle here, is not everybody’s going to fit. We got to figure out priorities.”

Yet exactly how much of the county’s $25 million stimulus will go towards non-profits is still undetermined.

Non-profits will be the first organizations eligible since many were left out of previous COVID-19 grant programs, county officials have said. After a first round of non-profits is finished, the next phases of stimulus grants will be open to businesses and government agencies. Should some non-profits miss out on the first round, officials have stressed that other windows for grants will come later.

“We can do another round later,” said County Administrator Scott Koeppel. “We have until the end of 2024 (to spend all stimulus funds). This is not a has to be done in five seconds game. The decision could be made by the board to open it up and change the rules a little bit later on.”

Additionally, officials previewed how grant applications will make their way through county bureaucracy. Though the process is not final, applications first face a staff review before getting moved to county committee. Applications in need of more information or review will be placed on hold or moved further down the chain.

Yet multiple board members advocated for a quicker method to get grant funds approved.

“If you start talking about all these committees and all these holding buckets and all these reviews, these people are going to go out of business before we get them their money,” said Board Member Amy Cesich. “Why don’t we streamline it a little bit?”