The Brownwood City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the Brownwood/Brown County Health Department to spend up to $150,000 for non-grant covered expenses for COVID-19 through April. The City of Brownwood will pay a 53-percent portion based on county population, which comes out to $79,000.

Service funds for COVID response grants will be insufficient to cover actual expenses as the Health Department continues contact tracing, case management, and vaccination clinics, and plans to continue as necessary to provide health and safety for the community.

The original proposal on the agenda was to extend financial support to the end of September.

“We can take this up again the first week in April and see where we’re going,” said Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes. “It could be the Department of Health changes the way they’re doing things and they stop sending the vaccines, or they could send even more. There’s just too many unknowns to do a seven, eight, or nine month budget.”

The Health Department has prepared a budget as per the city council’s direction and is requesting Brown County, the City of Brownwood, the City of Early, and the City of Bangs to share the cost based on population. All of these entities have applied for CRF funds, which if received would supply funds outside of budgeted revenue to allocate to continued COVID response.

“I think there will be more federal funds to cover vaccination distribution, it’s just right now that has not been made clear to us,” said Brownwood City Manager Emily Crawford. “It’s possible all these costs could be covered by FEMA or a federal stimulus of some sort. There are also grant funds that could become available, but right now none of that is confirmed. But if we intend to continue to vaccinate the community we have to make that decision locally.”

The budget is based upon providing the current level of COVID response as well as functioning as a vaccine hub. If the county receives hub status, it would be able to issue 1,000 vaccines a week. The estimated expenses should allow for first and second dose vaccinations of 26,000 citizens. The estimated number of Brown County citizens eligible for vaccination is 30,883.

“I don’t mind if we’re not a hub as long as we are consistently getting a large number of vaccinations,” said Brownwood/Brown County Health Department Administrator Lisa Dick. “We want to not do smaller clinics more often but rather do more substantial ones on a consistent basis. What the community gains is that it’s closer to recovery quicker.”

A 700-person vaccination clinic is in the works for next Tuesday, while the 600-plus who received their first shot on Feb. 3 will be available to receive their second on Wednesday. More information on both events will be provided in the near future.

In other city council news:

A resolution was approved to authorize the Mayor’s signature on TexPool and TexStar authorized representatives’ forms. The Director of Finance has traditionally been named as the primary authorized representative for the city’s investment pools at TexPool and TexStar. These authorization forms make that official.

An agricultural lease of 205.11-acre tract located at 202 FM 45 West was awarded to the highest bidder – Jody Cate at $1,846.03 per year – for a 3-year term. The City Manager was authorized to execute agreement.

A hunting lease of 186.3-acre tract located at 202 FM 45 West was awarded to the highest bidder – Jonathan McCullough at $7,200 per year – for a 3-year term. The City Manager was authorized to execute agreement.

The following reports were also presented: BMDD Annual Report; Racial Profiling Report; and Budgetary Control Report.