LISBON — East Liverpool City Hospital and the Salem Regional Medical Center have been given $250,000 each in federal CARES Act money from Columbiana County commissioners.

Commissioner Tim Weigle said both hospitals are going to use the money to cover the cost of COVID-19 testing for people who lack health insurance or any other way to pay for the service.

Weigle serves as the commissioners’ representative on the local COVID-19 task force that meets weekly via Zoom. The task force consists of the health directors from the county, East Liverpool and Salem health departments, the county Department of Job and Family Services, county Mental Health Center, representatives from the office of Congressman Bill Johnson and state Rep. Tim Ginter, the county Emergency Management Agency, and officials from East Liverpool and Salem hospitals.

During a recent meeting, county health director Wes Vins mentioned the hospitals were seeing more and more people being tested for COVID-19 testing without the financial means to pay for it and it was becoming a problem.

Weigle suggested commissioners give each hospital $250,000 for testing, with the money coming from the $5.9 million in federal Coronavirus, Aid and Economic Security Act money the county has received to date. The CARES Act was passed by Congress in April to help federal, state and local governments, businesses and individuals impacted by the fallout from COVID-19.

Hospitals, which are prohibited by law from denying emergency treatment to anyone, provide millions of dollars in free care every year to people without health insurance coverage, and ELCH and SRMC are no exception.

Weigle said the SRMC’s representative also asked if they could use the $250,000 to pay for indigent care provided to patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The memorandum of understanding was written in a way to give the hospitals discretion in determining whether the money can be spent in this manner.

Commissioners approved the hospital expenditures at their Oct. 28 meeting. Other expenditures of note at that meeting using CARES funds included:

• $8,240 to purchase a new body scan machine for the security checkpoint at county municipal court;

• $262,392 to purchase six new cruisers for the sheriff’s office. These cruisers have separate ventilation systems for the back seat where suspects possibly infected with the virus are seated;

• $12,730 for cruiser laptop computers.

• $75,451 for two crew trucks for the county water and sewer department;

• $8,604 in salary reimbursement for three engineer’s office employees;

• $91,856 to purchase four vehicles for the county JFS. These are used by child abuse and neglect investigators and include COVID-19 related protection features;

• $854 for new uniforms for dog pound employees;

• $4,451 for the CAA to continue renting an emergency homeless shelter through the end of the year for homeless people who may test positive for COVID-19;

• $87,700 to purchase a new ultraviolet disinfectant system at the county sewage treatment plant in Elkton.

• $8,200 for a porch awning at the county port authority. The CAA operates a food bank program out of the bottom level of the port authority building, and recipients often have to stand in inclement weather while waiting to pick up food.

At this week’s meeting, commissioners approved more expenditures involving CARES funds, including:

• $109,111 to the county Board of Development Disabilities for a 77-passenger school bus for the handicapped.

• $8,591 for laptop computers for engineer’s employees to work from home

“There are ones that you could look at skeptically but they all have a reason and are COVID related,” Commissioner Mike Halleck said.

tgiambroni@mojonews.com