Marengo awarded COVID-related relief funds

MONTGOMERY – Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded nearly $2 million to help several Alabama counties and a city emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and take precautions for future pandemics.

Marengo County was among those to receive $300,000 to repair a roof on its business incubator building in Linden and pave a parking lot at Whitfield Regional Hospital in Demopolis. Both buildings can be used for testing and vaccination centers.

The grant funds are required to be expended on projects relating to the recovery from or preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus or any future infectious diseases.

Also receiving funds were the city of Opelika and Russell, Monroe and Pickens counties. The awards are part of more than $40 million allocated to Alabama under a special Community Development Block Grant program funded from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Multiple COVID-related CDBG grants already have been awarded to Alabama cities and counties. Additional grants are expected.

The funds were made available to the state by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.