By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

Livingston County EMS is applying for a grant that would help bolster their supplies of personal protective equipment.

$25-million is being made available by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to help keep frontline workers safe from COVID-19. Governor Gretchen Whitmer helped announce the program last week, saying the money is coming from federal CARES Act dollars. MHDDS Director Robert Gordon said, in a release, that the grant program helps ease the financial burden of buying PPE, ensuring that all facilities can afford the supplies they need to keep themselves and patients safe.

With a September 8th deadline to apply coming up quickly, the Livingston County Board of Commissioners held a special meeting last Thursday afternoon to consider authorizing EMS Director David Feldpausch to do so. The grant could award up to $2,500 per FTE, to a maximum of $250,000. Feldpausch said he believes they will be eligible to receive $162,000.

He told Commissioners that if they are awarded the grant, it would be spent only on PPE purchases going forward, and not on reimbursing previous purchases. He said that because there are many different grants flowing out of the CARES Act he wants to make sure they are crossing their “t”s and dotting their “i”s.

Feldpausch said the application is pretty straight forward, doesn’t require a matching of funds, and is no-strings-attached. The Board of Commissioners approved the resolution authorizing the department to apply unanimously.