Lake County leaders hope to be reimbursed by feds for money spent fighting coronavirus

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — The National Association of Counties is reaching out to the federal government for its share of funding.

The organization is trying to make sure counties across Central Florida and all over the country get their slice of the pie when congressional leaders send out COVID-19 funding.

Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks said the coronavirus outbreak has forced counties to shell out lots of money to equip and protect first responders and to set up testing sites.

Read: Governor says phase 1 of reopening can begin May 4: What that means for Central Florida

Once the pandemic began, counties all over Central Florida and across the state fought to protect hospitals from being overwhelmed and citizens from getting infected with the deadly virus, which meant spending a lot of money.

“Locally here in Lake County we have overtime we have to pay,” Parks said. “We have first responders that are pulling double duty. There’s overtime pay. There’s paying extra costs because everyone needs PPE (personal protective equipment) so the costs have gone up.”

Lake County also partnered with Adult Medicine to offer testing sites.

"We are paying out of our general fund for testing in addition to what’s being done around the region,” Parks said.

Parks said Lake County leaders are hoping to be reimbursed by federal officials for the money they spent fighting the coronavirus.

Cox Media Group