ORANGE PARK — The Town has been reimbursed the full $1.4 million of the CARES Act it was owed.

As the CARES Act financing winds down around the state in anticipation of a new federal relief package, the town has been reimbursed the money owed to it, according to town manager Sarah Campbell. The Orange Park Town Council also approved the consent agenda as usual, which included approval of a new community development block grant for COVID-19 relief.

“The Town has an opportunity to apply for CDBG-CV grants through the state of Florida,” the memorandum reads. “The State’s allocation is $41,931,595. A pre-application is due to the state on March 15. Public input is desired regarding which of the four areas the Town should apply for, if any.”

The four areas of designated grant activities are buildings and improvements including public facilities, assistance to businesses including special economic development assistance, public services and planning.

The Town also heard the first reading of an ordinance amending town code to allow the consumption of alcohol on town property for specific events at locations like Town Hall Park, Clarke House, T.C. Miller Community Center and the Orange Park Sports and Recreation Complex. It wasn’t a blanket approval of alcohol consumption ordinance since sales will be subject to prior approval by the town for each event.

In other business, Campbell revealed a new visioning process report viewable to the town council and the public. The council requested quarterly reports at its last meeting of the visioning process and Campbell delivered that report during the meeting Tuesday night.

It’s broken down into categories based on the different committees and boards like the Environmental Quality Board and the Culture and Recreation Committee and it details what’s under the purview of each board and committee and what they’ve done.

“Thank you for putting this together,” council member Virginia Hall said. “This is very helpful for us to see what is moving forward and what isn’t, and it shows how much time has been spent by committees. So while we might not be able to see something that says, ‘oh, this is visioning,’ this is very helpful to keep up with what’s going on.”

Council member Randy Anderson suggested the idea of joint committee meetings for visioning processes.

“Just looking at some of the committees, some are moving very fast and some are not as fast,” Anderson said. “I would like to recommend that if one committee is struggling, maybe the ones moving faster can assist in whatever way they can and maybe cross utilize the personnel on the committees to do different things.”

The council was in agreement. The next Orange Park Town Council meeting will be held on March 16 in the Town Hall chamber at 7 p.m.