Carbon County has extended is disaster declaration with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic until July 31.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said the action was to keep in line with the federal government’s declaration for funding purposes.

Carbon County recently received notice that it will receive $5.796 million in federal CARES Act funding to help address impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, but they do not have many details on how to distribute the funds, or who to distribute the funds to, whether it is municipalities, businesses or other organizations.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that he has a phone call in to the governor’s office for more guidance on the distribution and thinks possibly distributing the money in three phases would be a smart way to go because it would spread out the funds over the next six months.

“We’re going to use this money the right way,” Ahner said. He is hoping that details will be coming soon.

He urged everyone, from small businesses to the county itself, to keep all records of everything related to COVID-19.

“It doesn’t matter if you printed a sign out that you must wear your mask, keep track of everything. … Maybe you got laptops for people to work so anything related to (COVID-19), you have to document it. … It doesn’t matter if it is a $1 mask because $1 is going to go to $100 and $100 is going to go to $1,000 so keep every little item that you used.”

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said that the county is hoping to empower municipalities so they can meet the needs in each town.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the governor has finally come to the table with the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania and hopes this is the first step in more communication between the state and county levels.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, announced the funding last week.

“As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I was pleased to be able to work on the distribution of this critical federal funding to assist residents and businesses that are struggling right now,” said Heffley. “Local communities have been hard hit by the governor’s shutdown orders over the past three months and these dollars will help jump-start our economic recovery.”