Accomack Board discusses volunteer fire and rescue company COVID-19 Assistance Grant Program

The Accomack County Board of Supervisors again discussed the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company COVID-19 Assistance Grant Program Wednesday night.  Several options were presented to the Board some of which required audits and extensive bookkeeping by the individual fire companies.  The federal money would be earmarked for those companies that lost significant revenue due to the pandemic.

Supervisor Robert Crockett came out of the gate saying that if we use the federal guidelines, only a few of the fire companies would be eligible.  Crockett said that while it isn’t legal for the County to pay volunteer firefighters,  the county can provide extra money to the fire companies themselves.   Crockett then proposed that each fire company receive $50,000.   He said that the companies that qualify for the federal money could be paid  by those funds but the other companies would receive money from either local funds or ARPA money. This proposal would only require that the fire companies provide an annual financial audit statement to the County which they already do.

The county staff will prepare a report for consideration at a later meeting.

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