The last of Kosciusko’s American Rescue Plan Act dollars were obligated Wednesday, save for a “cushion” of about $4,000, by the county’s ARPA committee.
The county council and commissioners will still need to approve the final obligations totaling nearly $1 million for the county’s public safety communications tower in Sidney ($400,000), Joe’s Kids ($121,503), Wagon Wheel ($350,000) and YMCA ($100,000). The commissioners approved the $400,000 for the communications tower at their meeting Tuesday, and the council meets at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Originally, the county was awarded $15,433,397 in ARPA funds, based on its population.
Signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, ARPA provided $350 billion in additional funding for state and local governments. Some of the eligible uses of these funds include revenue replacement for the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, COVID-19 expenditures or negative economic impacts of COVID-19 and investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure, according to the Government Finance Officers Association website.
Funding has to be obligated by the end of calendar year 2024 and expended by the end of calendar year 2026.
At Wednesday’s committee meeting, they first dealt with two new items and then revisited four requests that had been tabled from March and May.
Combined Community Services had $4,457 remaining from its previous allocation for a vehicle. Commissioner and committee chair Cary Groninger said CCS was wanting to use those dollars to outfit one of their other vehicles with a vehicle wrap and a cage/partition.
Sue Ann Mitchell, councilwoman and committee member, said, “I think we can address the two wraps because if you throw in the cage, it’s going to be more than what he’s got. ... I think that sounds fair.”
She made a motion to approve the reallocation of $4,457 to CCS for vehicle wraps and the motion passed.
Next in new requests was the request by Kosciusko County government for the $400,000 for the public safety communications system that the county has been working on for over three years.
Groninger said through the process they decided not to build the fourth tower at Sidney until they could see whether or not they had enough coverage for the system to try to avoid spending the additional funds. But after doing final testing with full foliage on all the trees, to make sure there was good coverage, Groninger said they found there were areas - especially down in the Eel River valley - that didn’t have enough coverage for the mobile radios and first responders.
The commissioners then requested ARPA dollars fund a portion of the fourth communication tower. The tower in Sidney will be 180 feet. Groninger said they have a memorandum of understanding with the town of Sidney for the tower to be located at the town’s wastewater treatment facility.
“This would enhance our coverage in that southern southeast corner of our county and really get the coverage up to what we’re looking to do,” he said.
The total cost of the project - including the tower and all the equipment that goes with it - is about $900,000, with ARPA covering $400,000 of that. The remaining funds will come from the county’s economic development income tax.
Council President and committee member Mike Long said, “This will tie everything together as well as Kosciusko Connect was talking about taking fiber into the area, so that will kind of work with this tower as well to really finish out our system and do it to the same level all of our other towers are at.”
Groninger said the towers are interconnected.
Mitchell said they’ve gone this far with the project and certainly don’t want to stop before they’ve succeeded in taking care of all of it.
Long made a motion to approve the $400,000 and the motion passed 3-0.
Before getting to the four requests that had been previously tabled, Groninger said going into Wednesday’s meeting, they had about $511,000 that had not been allocated yet of the ARPA funds.
“We’ve been diligently working the last couple times, the last couple months to look and see what funds we had that have not been spent that may be coming back, as well as, when we originally headed down this path, we allocated a pretty sizeable sum toward administration expenses not knowing what all we were going to be in for, for audits and other administration expenses,” Groninger said.
With that, he said there were multiple county projects that they are in control of that they know are finished and the dollars are spent. He said about $91,000 could be brought back into the coffers to be reallocated.
The committee still needs to go through its other ARPA funds recipients as there could be other dollars that could come back as the grants weren’t fully used as the grants are based on what was actually spent on the project.
“If they only spent $100, they only get $100,” he stated. “So, the process is going to be going back through the remainder of those grants that have been awarded and confirming all of those dollars. ... With that said, there could be some additional funds coming back in.”
In total, the committee figured it had a total of $975,700.73 to allocate, minus the $400,000 they just approved for the communication project, leaving $575,700.73 available to be allocated.
Looking over a list provided by Groninger that shows where the ARPA funds went, Mitchell pointed out, “The county has taken right at - with everything considered, I believe - $6.8 million. And the county was entitled to $10 million to start with. So we haven’t taken our full share. It seems like we have taken a lot, but we have not taken the county’s full share.”
Groninger said that $10 million was supposed to have been set aside for the county’s loss of revenue during the COVID-19 time period, but the county gave away more than was necessary.
The first tabled request the committee reviewed was from Kosciusko County Senior Services for $124,700 for a vehicle. Because KCSS previous received about $60,000 in ARPA funds for a vehicle, the committee voted not to award that request.
For Joe’s Kids, the committee approved $121,503 for the parking lot lighting, other lighting and security system at their new location.
For the YMCA’s Madison Elementary School gym repurpose, the committee awarded $100,000. Groninger abstained from the vote as the gym is in the neighborhood of his company’s housing development.
Before making the award to Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts, the committee discussed whether or not to leave a cushion and how much. Groninger also noted unused funds could come back to the county to be reallocated. It was decided $4,000 of the $354,000 remaining would be the cushion and the remaining $350,000 would go to the Wagon Wheel.
Mitchell stated, “I would like to add that if we get money back, that we not take new applications from anybody, but that we address the Wagon Wheel. We have looked at that. We know that they have a serious need, and what we’re providing from here is not near enough for their serious need. I think we all understand that, and if you want to talk about a gem in our county, that’s a gem in our county that draws people here. And I think that’s critical. So if we would receive money back, we would still be able to apply it towards what they’re doing and where they’re at, at the time.”
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 8 to see where they’re at and what, if anything, they need to do for closure.