“It’s been one heck of a year, 2020.”

That’s the sentiment Carbon County Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein expressed during the county’s final meeting of the year, which took place via Zoom and livestreamed on Facebook.

Nothstein said that even with a pandemic changing normal day-to-day operations within the county and added several unforeseen expenses to budgets, the board has still been able to accomplish quite a few things and start some new projects.

“Considering the circumstances, I think we did all right,” he said.

The sentiments came as part of a wrap-up report to the COVID-19 Relief Block Grant, which closed out Thursday. Carbon County had received $5.79 million through the CARES Act in mid-2020 and created a grant program that helped approximately 300 groups, businesses and municipalities with COVID-19 related expenses.

The commissioners said that the county spent every dollar of the CARES funds, either through the grants, or county expenses for the pandemic.

The unfortunate thing, Nothstein said, is that no additional funding for CARES was included under the federal government’s new relief bill.

“We were happy that we were able to help so many businesses, nonprofits and others,” Nothstein said.