RAD Card Program Exhausts Matching Funds In One Week

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Sonora, CA — A program funded by federal American Rescue Act dollars to help Tuolumne County businesses has been very popular and already exhausted all of the matching funds.

The RAD Card program allowed anyone to purchase electronic gift cards that could be used at numerous participating locally owned businesses in Tuolumne County. The max you could purchase is $100, and the money was matched 100-percent by the federal relief dollars. The Tuolumne County Supervisors put just over $450,000 into the program, and after only one week, the matching money has been completely accounted for.

“The community turned out,” says Cole Przybyla, Tuolumne County’s Director of Innovation and Business Assistance. “We effectively got $455,000 in American Rescue Plan economic stimulus dollars into the hands of the community. And of that, about 20-percent has already been spent at businesses in the community.”

Przybyla says around 175 Tuolumne County businesses signed up for the program. They can be viewed after downloading the RAD Card app on a mobile device.

We reported earlier that the RAD Card program was included in the first round of projects/programs the supervisors selected to spend a fraction of $10-million in federal recovery funds on. Other efforts included a Community Grants program for non-profits, fire equipment, code enforcement, GIS software, animal control facility upgrades, etc. The supervisors are expected to discuss how to spend additional one-time federal funds, whether it be on new projects or more RAD Card-type efforts, at board meetings early next year.