Delaware County hires consultant (Witt O'Brien's) to get as much grant funding for Coronavirus as possible

Published in Delaware County Times
Jun 19, 2020

Delaware County Council unanimously approved hiring consultant Witt O'Brien's to make certain its getting the most COVID-19 revenues it can.

At Wednesday night's meeting, they agreed to pay Witt O'Brien's an amount not exceeding $150,000 to maximize reimbursement under federal and state grant programs such as FEMA and the CARES Act. County officials said they anticipate that O'Brien's salary will be paid by the CARES Act money.

"A number of grants have become available and it's really important that you are very judicious in spending appropriately from the grant so that you maximize the grant and that you are only using eligible expenses," county Chief Administrative Officer Marianne Grace explained. "We need to make sure that all of our expenses are eligible and that the county is not in a position 18 months from now or whenever the audit would be that the county would have to be refunding money."

She said there are many different funding opportunities becoming available and Delaware County should maximize these grants to get as much revenue as it can to respond to COVID-19.

Officials expect that O'Brien's services will allow them to procure funding such as the $58,008 they approved from the U.S. Department of Justice that is allowing park police to purchase thermometers, masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and plexiglass.

By Kathleen E. Carey kcarey@21st-centurymedia.com @dtbusiness on Twitter