Penobscot County commissioners on Tuesday made an additional $900,000 of federal COVID relief funds available for grants between $5,000 and $50,000.
So far, commissioners have awarded nearly $2.2 million in grants from the $29.5 million it received from the American Rescue Plan Act. Those awards were limited to nonprofits. The newest round of funding is not and money could be awarded to for-profit organizations, according to information posted on the county’s website.
The county is divided into three sections — Bangor, Old Town and communities to the north and southern Penobscot County. Each of the three commissioners representing those areas will be able to distribute $300,000 to organizations that are tackling issues in their districts.
“These organizations may have missed the application process for some reason, or didn’t address the priorities of the larger county as identified at the listening sessions, or may be for-profit organizations that would have fallen outside the beneficiary funding application rules,” the announcement said. “These awards are released at the discretion of the commissioners to fund worthy projects in their districts.”
Grant applications will be screened by individual commissioners, but grants must be approved by a majority vote of all three commissioners.
After listening sessions throughout the county, commissioners set funding for organizations committed to addressing homelessness, mental health issues and/or substance use disorder as priorities.
To receive ARPA funds, organizations must show how they were impacted by the pandemic or the closures related to it. None of the money may be used for programs that work to dissuade people from getting vaccinated or work against the purpose of the funding.
Organizations that previously received funding may apply for additional money but the total received must be for less than $50,000. For example, Breaking the Cycle and Pir2Peer Recovery Community Center, both in Millinocket, and Lincoln-based Save A Life, Inc., each received $25,000 in the first round of grants announced in August. Those organizations would be eligible for an additional $24,999.
All three organizations along with Together Place Peer Run Recovery Center in Bangor and Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, which received $25,000 and $24,500 respectively, could seek additional funds.
There is no deadline for filing applications for grants.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the deadline for filing applications. There is no deadline.