Rock Falls applies for $555,000 in grants to cover COVID-19 expenses

ROCK FALLS – The city is applying for $555,000 in state and federal funds to offset costs from the coronavirus pandemic.

City Administrator Robbin Blackert spoke to the Rock Falls City Council Tuesday about submitting applications to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for a pair of grants to help the city deal with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One grant application, for an economic support grant of $155,000, would reimburse Rock Falls Tourism for grants they distributed to local businesses earlier in the year to keep those businesses open through the pandemic.

The Rock Falls Tourism Committee created the grants in May, using tourism fund dollars to assist small businesses in the city in the hospitality industry, which had to either shut down or limit customers in the early days of the pandemic.

The city is also seeking $400,000 through the CARES Act, the federal program established in late March to assist people and businesses affected by COVID-19..

Rock Falls has already received one such grant for $385,000.

"All that grant money we got has really saved the general fund," Blackert said. "And we've asked for another $400,000 that would go to pay for firefighters' salaries, since they're EMTs and they qualify as first responders."

Blackert is hoping to get an answer from DCEO sometime in the spring.

The council also accepted the resignation of John Espinoza from the Police and Fire Commission and appointed Mike Kuelper to fill the spot through May 2022.