Carbon County officials want the public to know that there are many grants out there for COVID-19 related issues, but there is only one that the county is overseeing and applications for a portion of the $5.7 million have not yet been released.

On Thursday, Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that he has been fielding questions about the grants out there and some confusion about the grant the county is handling.

“The grant the commissioners are in charge of is completely controlled by us,” he said, noting that some people are thinking the grants that are already accepting applications is the one the county is administering. “It’s not. We’re trying to put things together.”

Officials have been forming committees with various entities to help with overseeing the applications, as well as added additional services from their financial consultant and designated a COVID-19 grant coordinator.

Applications are also being formed and will be available as soon as possible, but the commissioners have no firm time line at this point.

Ahner said he has been working on some options to best track who applies and how much they receive, but added there are more details that need to be worked out.

He said that he wants the process for business, nonprofits and other groups who apply for reimbursements from COVID-19 related purchases to be as easy as possible.

Previously, the board stressed that groups looking to apply for some of this funding should be preparing receipts and expense reports now so that they have all documentation in place when the application becomes available.

In other matters, Carbon County officials expect to extend the county’s disaster declaration to the end of the year next week.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that reasons for an extension to the end of the year is because the county is going to incur expenses through December.

He also “strongly encouraged” municipalities to also take a look at extending their declarations.

“If you don’t want to do it for that length of time, do it for two or three months and see how it plays out in the meantime,” Nothstein said.