The first round of federal CARES Act money that came to the county is hitting the streets.

The county was awarded just over $3.5 million in federal coronavirus relief, known as CARES Act funding. About $2.2 million will be awarded to business and non-profits in the community with the remainder of the funds meeting municipal and county-related COVID-19 expenses.

The Warren County Commissioners awarded just over $975,000 in a special meeting last week.

“It was a very good meeting,” Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said during Monday’s work session. “It went as well as it could have.”

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said they will be meeting with the Department of Community and Economic Development next week to review expenses to date.

The commissioners contracted with two accounting firms — Haines and Kersey — as well as the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry to review the applications and work directly with the businesses to ensure all the CARES Act guidelines were followed.

Last week’s meeting was a “simple up or down vote,” Kafferlin said at the time, on the recommendations from those entities.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said at that meeting that there would be two additional rounds of $500,000 each. That second phase is open now with the third coming in October.

He said the goal was to “help as many people as we can with the money” and emphasized that the commissioners did not intercede on any of the applications.

Kafferlin acknowledged last week that the funds don’t “necessarily make (the organizations) whole” but said they are “doing what we can.”