Parkersburg Development Director Rickie Yeager, top right, answers a question during Tuesday’s City Council meeting as, clockwise from bottom right, Councilmen Jeff Fox and Eric Barber and Mayor Tom Joyce listen in this screenshot from the YouTube stream of the meeting. (Image Provided)

PARKERSBURG – The creation of funds to assist businesses, individuals and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic was approved Tuesday by Parkersburg City Council.

Meeting via the Microsoft Teams app to observe social-distancing guidelines, council voted 9-0 to authorize the administration’s proposal for how to use $529,739 in federal Community Development Block Grant money for COVID-19 relief.

The funding was made available to the city, as a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development entitlement community, through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed by Congress in March. Under the resolution approved by council, $300,000 will establish the Small Business Relief Fund to provide forgivable loans to businesses with 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees. To be eligible, the owners or at least 51 percent of the workforce must qualify as low-to-moderate income, with an annual gross income of $32,950 or less. Priority will be given to businesses employing 10 or fewer people.

“Their applications would be run through first,” Mayor Tom Joyce said in response to a question from Councilman Jeff Fox about how that priority status would work.

“We envision this being used in a manner to fill any unmet needs or gaps,” Joyce said. “They can use it for inventory, to help with their rent, their mortgage, basically any business-related expenses.”

Development Director Rickie Yeager said those receiving the loan would have to document that they have an unmet need and the funds would go toward working capital expenses to allow them to continue to provide jobs for low-to-moderate-income individuals.

The remaining $229,739 would form the Family Relief Fund, which would provide emergency payments for up to 90 days for low-to-moderate-income individuals or families facing homelessness or utility cutoffs.

Checks would be made out “directly to the landlord, banking institution that holds the mortgage or the utility service provider,” Yeager said. “At no time will funds be allocated directly to the household.”

There is no timetable for when applications will be available, Joyce said after the meeting, because the plans must still be approved by HUD.

The programs will be run with the help of organizations like the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council, Community Resources, the United Way Alliance of the Mid-Ohio Valley, the Salvation Army of Parkersburg and Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

“These organizations, this is what they do. Their primary purpose is to help folks,” Joyce said. “It’s not necessarily a program that we’re going to run completely in-house just because there are folks that are better at it than we are.”

Tuesday’s meeting was streamed live on YouTube using the multiple screens of the Teams app rather than a view of council chambers. The camera that provided that was overwhelmed with multiple devices and applications in use for the April 21 meeting, resulting in jerky video and audio that could seldom be heard. Those issues were not present during Tuesday’s livestream.

The executive conference room across from council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building was set up so members of the public could listen to the meeting and speak during the public forum. No one signed up to speak, but a woman who attended said the video and audio worked fine.

Fox, Councilmen Eric Barber and J.R. Carpenter and Council President Mike Reynolds participated from council chambers, while other council members and city officials remotely joined.

In other business:

* Council unanimously passed a resolution reallocating $170,651.63 in CDBG funds to slum and blight demolition.

* Council voted 9-0 to schedule its next three meetings for May 19, June 2 and June 23, in part to account for West Virginia’s rescheduled June 9 primary election.

* A resolution implementing a federal waiver to reduce the public comment period on CDBG amendments related specifically to COVID-19 relief from 15 days to five passed 8-1. Barber cast the dissenting vote, which he said was an error because he thought it was on a motion to combine multiple resolutions into one. That motion had died for lack of a second, but it was not clear from the meeting video and audio who made the motion to pass the resolution.

* The final reading of an ordinance temporarily removing the limit on vacation time employees can carry over into the next fiscal year passed 9-0.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.