Rice Receives Nearly $102,000 in Coronavirus Relief Funding

RICE -- The city of Rice is receiving nearly $102,000 in Coronavirus Relief funds.

The funds are designed to help local governments cover the cost of expenditures relating to the COVID-19 pandmeic.

To date, the city has spent about $4,200 of that funding for items such as disinfects, hazard pay, and unemployment.

During Monday's meeting, the council will look to approve spending $92,000 of the remaining funds on a variety of items for the city council, police and fire departments.

Those items include roughly $22,000 on a new sound system for the council chambers to help the public view meetings from home, $3,500 for new iPads for council members to work remotely.

The city would spend roughly $14,000 for the police department to equip officers with their own gear and social distancing measures to prevent cross contamination

Then roughly $50,000 would be spend on the fire department for a new compact monitor designed for EMS personal to treat potential COVID patients better, a new chest compression system and cleanable medical bags.

If approved the council would have until November 15th, to use the remaining $5,000.