KABS Deobligates $323K In Grant Funding
April 11, 2023 at 11:05 p.m.
KABS Deobligates $323K In Grant Funding
By David [email protected]
Kosciusko Area Bus Service (KABS) General Manager Steve Lockridge told the county commissioners Tuesday, “What we’re doing today is, in 2020 we received $1.3 million in the CARES Act funding, which ended on June 30, 2022. The CARES Act funding was used for KABS’ net operating expenses.”
Because KABS was able to use the CARES Act funding the first six months of the calendar year 2022, KABS was unable to use all of the federal capital funds that it was awarded.
“Between the CARES Act funding, ridership being at an all-time low at the height of the pandemic and the difficult labor market, we have $323,068 in federal funds and $21 in capital equipment funds that will be deobligated back to INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation),” Lockridge said.
These deobligated funds, along with other deobligated funds from other transit agencies, will be “reprogrammed across the entirety of the 5311 program in the future grant periods,” he said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said he understood that with all the CARES Act money that KABS received they weren’t able to use all the funds given to them by INDOT, so he made a motion to approve the deobligation of the funds. The motion passed 3-0.
Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe presented the commissioners with the final Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP) Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) to adopt.
Recapping what’s taken place so far, she said they’ve gone through four phases - building a team; community engagement; review of all project ideas submitted; determine which ideas were the most important to the community members, move those forward to the town boards, allow them to decide which projects would be moved forward with putting together a project and program workshops; and now present the final projects related to each of the communities involved including the county’s.
She said Tuesday’s objective was to review the SIP, ensure that it was grammatically correct and a true representation of what they desire to adopt to move forward with the funding phase.
“Once we complete this, this ties us up in a nice bow for all the phases of the program, and then we can move forward to determine money. No funding decisions will be made today, that will be in a future stage,” Roe said.
After the commissioners adopted the SIP Tuesday, she said they will meet on April 26 with their Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) team to review all the projects again, as well as the low to moderate income (LMI) requirements. The team will determine if any of the communities need to do a LMI survey.
“LMI is the restriction for using the funds that are called CDBG,” Roe said.
If an income survey has to be done for any of the communities, she said it will be done in May. The hope is that, in June, all the elected bodies will be brought together to review the projects specifically for the county. The county council, commissioners and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) committee will then determine which projects are to move forward for funding.
Kosciusko County was one of three communities selected in 2021 by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) to participate in the first cohort of the HELP. HELP assists and equips rural communities with developing SIPs, resulting in a legacy project for each community focused on at least one of four community development pathways including advancing e-connectivity, enhancing quality of place, promoting community wellness and strengthening local economies.
Roe said this specific program, along with Forward Kosciusko, has spurred on additional funding, which is a very “neat” part of the process.
“So the Community Foundation were the first to be able to follow up and they have awarded all of our HELP communities with additional funding to put seed money toward the projects, that they will then build the capital stack with, with our ARPA funds and CDBG funds,” Roe said.
Groninger thanked Roe and said it’s been over a year-long process. He thanked everyone that’s been a part of the HELP. He said he didn’t know if it’s ever been done before in the county from the perspective that the county included other communities - Milford, Mentone and Pierceton - involved in the program.
The SIP is one of the requirements from OCRA for the county to have access to $1 million in CDBG funds, he said.
After they decide which projects to move forward on and what funding to use, “That’s the thing that I’m seeing happen is, now we have a list of some projects in the county other communities would like to see done. Not only do we have our ARPA funds, but we also have our CDBG funds that we were awarded with this, now we’re seeing the Community Foundation, we’re seeing other organizations that have grant opportunities for us to be able to fund some of these projects that are even beyond what we originally talked about, which was what our hope was,” Groninger said.
He called it a win-win all the way around and made a motion to approve the SIP, which was approved unanimously.
In other business, the commissioners approved:
• A resolution approving the acquisition of right-of-way by Kosciusko County for two different city of Warsaw properties adjacent to the Hand Avenue bridge project over Walnut Creek. The purchase prices are $1,400 and $1,500 and the Warsaw Common Council previously approved for the county to purchase the land from the city.
By law, the county is responsible for all bridge maintenance in the county - including within the corporate limits of Warsaw - that is not maintained by INDOT.
• County Administrator Marsha McSherry’s request to apply for an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant through the Michiana Area Council of Governments for $77,790. She said they are submitted the application for both the technical assistance and equipment rebate.
• A bid from MacAllister for maintenance of the three generators at the radio communication tower sites for $5,823 for three years. The other bid was from Evapar for $2,580 per year.
The next commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. April 25.
Kosciusko Area Bus Service (KABS) General Manager Steve Lockridge told the county commissioners Tuesday, “What we’re doing today is, in 2020 we received $1.3 million in the CARES Act funding, which ended on June 30, 2022. The CARES Act funding was used for KABS’ net operating expenses.”
Because KABS was able to use the CARES Act funding the first six months of the calendar year 2022, KABS was unable to use all of the federal capital funds that it was awarded.
“Between the CARES Act funding, ridership being at an all-time low at the height of the pandemic and the difficult labor market, we have $323,068 in federal funds and $21 in capital equipment funds that will be deobligated back to INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation),” Lockridge said.
These deobligated funds, along with other deobligated funds from other transit agencies, will be “reprogrammed across the entirety of the 5311 program in the future grant periods,” he said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said he understood that with all the CARES Act money that KABS received they weren’t able to use all the funds given to them by INDOT, so he made a motion to approve the deobligation of the funds. The motion passed 3-0.
Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe presented the commissioners with the final Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP) Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) to adopt.
Recapping what’s taken place so far, she said they’ve gone through four phases - building a team; community engagement; review of all project ideas submitted; determine which ideas were the most important to the community members, move those forward to the town boards, allow them to decide which projects would be moved forward with putting together a project and program workshops; and now present the final projects related to each of the communities involved including the county’s.
She said Tuesday’s objective was to review the SIP, ensure that it was grammatically correct and a true representation of what they desire to adopt to move forward with the funding phase.
“Once we complete this, this ties us up in a nice bow for all the phases of the program, and then we can move forward to determine money. No funding decisions will be made today, that will be in a future stage,” Roe said.
After the commissioners adopted the SIP Tuesday, she said they will meet on April 26 with their Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) team to review all the projects again, as well as the low to moderate income (LMI) requirements. The team will determine if any of the communities need to do a LMI survey.
“LMI is the restriction for using the funds that are called CDBG,” Roe said.
If an income survey has to be done for any of the communities, she said it will be done in May. The hope is that, in June, all the elected bodies will be brought together to review the projects specifically for the county. The county council, commissioners and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) committee will then determine which projects are to move forward for funding.
Kosciusko County was one of three communities selected in 2021 by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) to participate in the first cohort of the HELP. HELP assists and equips rural communities with developing SIPs, resulting in a legacy project for each community focused on at least one of four community development pathways including advancing e-connectivity, enhancing quality of place, promoting community wellness and strengthening local economies.
Roe said this specific program, along with Forward Kosciusko, has spurred on additional funding, which is a very “neat” part of the process.
“So the Community Foundation were the first to be able to follow up and they have awarded all of our HELP communities with additional funding to put seed money toward the projects, that they will then build the capital stack with, with our ARPA funds and CDBG funds,” Roe said.
Groninger thanked Roe and said it’s been over a year-long process. He thanked everyone that’s been a part of the HELP. He said he didn’t know if it’s ever been done before in the county from the perspective that the county included other communities - Milford, Mentone and Pierceton - involved in the program.
The SIP is one of the requirements from OCRA for the county to have access to $1 million in CDBG funds, he said.
After they decide which projects to move forward on and what funding to use, “That’s the thing that I’m seeing happen is, now we have a list of some projects in the county other communities would like to see done. Not only do we have our ARPA funds, but we also have our CDBG funds that we were awarded with this, now we’re seeing the Community Foundation, we’re seeing other organizations that have grant opportunities for us to be able to fund some of these projects that are even beyond what we originally talked about, which was what our hope was,” Groninger said.
He called it a win-win all the way around and made a motion to approve the SIP, which was approved unanimously.
In other business, the commissioners approved:
• A resolution approving the acquisition of right-of-way by Kosciusko County for two different city of Warsaw properties adjacent to the Hand Avenue bridge project over Walnut Creek. The purchase prices are $1,400 and $1,500 and the Warsaw Common Council previously approved for the county to purchase the land from the city.
By law, the county is responsible for all bridge maintenance in the county - including within the corporate limits of Warsaw - that is not maintained by INDOT.
• County Administrator Marsha McSherry’s request to apply for an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant through the Michiana Area Council of Governments for $77,790. She said they are submitted the application for both the technical assistance and equipment rebate.
• A bid from MacAllister for maintenance of the three generators at the radio communication tower sites for $5,823 for three years. The other bid was from Evapar for $2,580 per year.
The next commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. April 25.
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