The clock is winding down on the federal funding that has paid for such test sites nationwide.
The federal CARES Act sent $150 billion to state and local governments across the country to help buffer the economic and public health damage caused by the pandemic. The CARES Act funding is coming up on a Dec. 30 use it or lose it deadline. Congress has not extended that deadline or agreed to a second round of relief.
The looming deadline has City Council members asking the administration to ensure the city spends all the $167 million Jacksonville received in CARES funding. That money has been set aside in categories for testing, financial relief for businesses and residents, help for non-profit organizations and assistance in covering City Hall's expenses for responding to the pandemic.
"I think it would be a travesty if we did not use the dollars for people that need the dollars," council member Garrett Dennis said at the Tuesday council meeting. "There are still organizations out there that are in need."
"We completely agree," Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Stephanie Burch said. "We need to use the funds for our citizens and those dollars cannot go back into a reserve account. They have to be spent by Dec. 30 as of right now."
In the most recent report to City Council, the administration said Jacksonville is authorized to spend $167.1 million and is on track to use $165.9 million. That leaves $1.2 million.
The chart submitted by city administrators shows the $1.2 million is in the the category of testing sites and other health needs. The chart's notes say the city will extend the testing contracts if the Dec. 30 deadline is moved by the federal government to a later date.
The report does not say what will happen to the test sites if federal funding ends on its current schedule. The city did not respond to emailed questions about the test sites.
The city has used CARES Act money to pay for testing at a number of sites since March. Currently, the city-sponsored sites are at The Beaches, Ed Austin Regional Park in East Arlington, Lane Wiley Senior Center, Leroy D. Clemens Senior Center, Lincoln Villa Senior Center, Mandarin Senior Center and Oceanway Senior Center.
The state Division of Emergency Management operates testing sites at Regency Square mall and at the Legends Center on Soutel Drive. The state sites are open to anyone, regardless of whether they are Jacksonville residents.
The cost of running the city-sponsored test sites accounts for the second-largest share of CARES Act dollars received by Jacksonville. City Council authorized $35.2 million for testing and and other health needs, and the administration projects it will spend $34 million.
The biggest expense for CARES dollars sent to Jacksonville was $40 million that provided $1,000 prepaid cards to 40,000 Duval County residents who suffered economically because of the pandemic and needed help with mortgage, rent and utility costs.
The city faced the task of setting up the program so it could get money to people in need as fast as possible while also screening applicants to ensure they met the program's requirements. Overall, the city has received good feedback for how it rolled out the assistance.
The city also used $23.5 million in CARE dollars for grants in varying amounts to business and non-profit organizations.
The city set aside $20 million in order to cover rent, loan, lease, parking and fee payments that city would otherwise be receiving from organizations.
A partnership with VyStar, which was one of the first programs that rolled out after the pandemic moved into Jacksonville, puts about $16.2 million into a program for small business loans.
The city carved out $12.5 million in CARES Act dollar to use as the local share of potentially $100 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover losses incurred by the city in responding to the pandemic. The administration's report to City Council does not say if FEMA has awarded any reimbursements yet to the city.
If history is a guide for getting reimbursements related to hurricane-related costs, it could take years to get FEMA money for pandemic expenses and there is no guarantee how much FEMA would eventually award.
The city also paid about $11 million with CARES dollars for prepaid cards of up to $2,000 apiece for small business relief.
The city is about to launch a $5.3 million program giving grants to Duval County businesses and residents facing the threat or eviction or foreclosure. The city is working with the Jacksonville Bar Association on that program and will start taking applications on JacksonvilleCares.com for residential properties starting next Thursday and then commercial properties the week of Dec. 7.
Other programs paid for with CARES money are $2 million to help JEA customers avoid utility disconnections because of overdue payment and $1 million targeted to helping senior citizens and people with disabilities.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Future of Jacksonville COVID-19 test sites up in air as federal funding set to end Dec. 30
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