The city of Benton's Finance Committee meeting Monday approved requests from the police and fire departments. Fire Chief Bill Ford made a request to apply for a FEMA grant, also for PPE. He said it would be a 10-percent matching grant. Ford joked that due to the grant's deadline he already had applied so he was sort of asking for forgiveness instead of permission.
Benton Mayor Tom Farmer commented that many departments may find themselves in the same situation of having to go ahead and apply for grants due to time constraints.
He also said the Parks Department is also trying to get PPE to reopen, but supplies are on back order.
Ford gave the city an update on Station 6 as well. Due to the issues from COVID-19, he said he was uncomfortable moving forward on construction, but the land agreement gave the city a two-year deadline to build it. Farmer said they spoke to Dan Moudy, Realtor, who he called "gracious." Moudy extended the deadline.