Kendall County aims to prioritize non-profits first for federal stimulus money

Though a grant application portal likely won’t be active until the fall, officials already outlining guidelines.

Kendall County officials say they’re in uncharted territory as they work to spend federal stimulus funds on local grants, rural broadband and recouping lost revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A county finance committee discussed guidelines for dolling out grant funds during a meeting Thursday, June 10 in Yorkville, agreeing that non-profits should be first in line to receive the funds. Private businesses and government entities would come later.

Non-profits were often left out of previous grants, officials said. But critically, taking the grant program sector by sector will prevent it from being overwhelmed.

“To have the portal open to all eligible possible groups at one time is not feasible, A, our staff, and B, for us to do it properly,” said Board Member Matt Kellogg, chair of the finance committee. “When we go out with this first phase, we want to learn from it and learn from our mistakes, because it’s not going to be perfect.”

County officials approved a contract earlier this month to build a grant application portal through the company SurveyMonkey. It was the first money spent from Kendall County’s $25 million federal stimulus. The first half of the deposit hit county coffers in May, with the second half expected a year from then.

Though the SurveyMonkey deal has just been inked, and county officials want to emphasize to residents that the grant portal will likely not go live until the fall.

“I think a fall launch would be pretty reasonable just because we just don’t do this,” said County Administrator Scott Koeppel.

The finance committee has begun drafting a list of questions non-profits and businesses will need to answer in the portal, which include if they’ve received previous pandemic grants and if their business is located in the county. None of the criteria is final, though, and is pending review from the Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The grant criteria alone is already forming potential pitfalls. For instance, how do county officials weigh an organization or business that has a Kendall County location but is headquartered elsewhere? What about something that’s struggling financially or near bankruptcy?

Grant-seekers will also have to provide extensive financial reports to the county on how the stimulus money is spent, which would be subject to public records requests.

“I think everyone that I’ve talked to is of the opinion that we want this to be a long-term building program for our non-profits and those groups, so we’re helping them build for the future and not a stop gap,” Kellogg said.

In addition, county officials emphasized that many neighboring counties are not using the recent round of stimulus funds for grants, instead opting to spend it on capital projects.

“I really appreciate the board taking the initiative to help the people of Kendall County,” said board member Brian DeBolt. “I know some small companies that even if they got $25,000, that might pay their rent for the year and maybe they could get by.”

Apart from the grants, other stimulus funds might go toward funding a long-term water supply and installing rural broadband. Yet even that’s a double-edged sword.

The Biden administration aims to fund water projects and rural broadband, putting the county at the mercy of congressional negotiations before they know how much money could be available for top infrastructure projects.

“This is a long term play, not only with the money but with the wake it creates behind it,” Kellogg said. “Is it the best use of the money to do the capital projects when lumber’s four times the cost it was a year ago?... There’s so many different variables in this it’s overwhelming”