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Kootenai County transit staff: CARES Act funds cover operations; board asks staff to confirm planning uses with FTA
Summary
Transit staff told commissioners Sept. 9 that CARES Act funds can be used for operations and staff costs and that the county is drawing down those funds; commissioners asked staff to clarify whether CARES funds can also be used for planning and noted multiple open grants and long procurement lead times for buses.
Kootenai County transit staff on Sept. 9 told commissioners that CARES Act grant funds are being used for operations and staff time and that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has allowed the county to extend CARES Act performance periods one fiscal year at a time.
Dorian Kumbrik and Chad Engel told the board that FTA guidance has not set a fixed sunset date for the CARES funds but that the county must request annual extensions of the performance period. Transit staff said they are drawing down CARES funds quarterly and using them for staff time, security and operations. At the same time, the county has older 5307 grant funds with sunset dates that staff must expend before those awards lapse; as a result, staff said they have been using older 5307 dollars first while keeping CARES funds available for operations that do not expire under current guidance.
Commissioners asked why the county holds multiple active grants. Transit staff said some grants (notably vehicle procurement and paratransit bus purchases) must be in place before vehicle orders are placed; lead times can be long — a bus order may take a year or more to complete — so multiple grants may remain open while procurement and delivery schedules play out. Chad Engel said having funding in place is necessary to place orders and that closing multiple grants often depends on delivery timing.
Board members asked whether CARES funds could be used for planning; staff said the federal rules explicitly covered operations but did not clearly spell out planning, and they did not yet have a definitive FTA determination on planning uses. Commissioners requested that staff confirm planning eligibilities with FTA.
Transit staff also presented a near-term operational funding need of about $1.22 million for fixed-route operations through part of FY26 (the figure reflected a six-quarter planning window, which the staff said was necessary because grant processes require advance planning). The board asked for clearer quarter-to-quarter alignment in future reports to avoid mismatches between reporting periods.
No formal vote was taken on grant policy at the meeting. Staff said they would continue to draw CARES funds per FTA guidance, pursue grant closeouts where possible and check with FTA about planning-eligibility for CARES dollars.
