TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. Some area municipalities were scrambling this week to submit applications for federal pandemic relief funding, with an initial deadline looming Wednesday. They got a break from that crunch when officials extended that deadline by a month. The state Department of Community and Economic Development “started urging municipalities to apply as soon as possible once the (American Rescue Plan Act) funding was available just after Memorial Day,” department spokesman Casey Smith said Tuesday, noting email blasts, letters and postcards were used to reach out to communities.