County spends relief funds on emergency response needs

The county commissioners selected two projects to benefit from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding last week: an E-911 system for the Sheriff’s Office and a communications tower to boost the signal to the radios used by emergency responders.

Time was set aside on the monthly agenda to discuss dispersing the county’s ARPA funds now that the final rules are available, which dictate exactly how the money can be spent. The funds were issued in response to COVID-19, which means the allowable uses all relate in some way to the issues caused by the pandemic.

However, according to County Clerk Linda Fritz, the rules are still somewhat confusing as they can sometimes be interpreted in more than one way. Getting it wrong risks the possibility that the federal government could ask for the money to be repaid.

“Once again, we’re still trying to figure out what we can do with this,” commented County Attorney Joe Baron as the conversation began.

With this in mind, the commissioners are taking a circumspect approach to spending the $749,000 Crook County received in its first installment of ARPA funding. A second installment of the same amount is expected later this year.

Spending to Date

Fritz provided a run-down of the ARPA money spent so far. Approximately $175,000 went towards “premium pay” (or hazard pay) for county staff who worked through the pandemic.

Each employee who worked full-time between March, 2020 and the end of the fiscal year in 2021 received $200 per month in premium pay, according to Fritz. This was significantly lower than the maximum allowed through the ARPA rules, which could have seen employees receive up to an extra $13 per hour worked.

Approximately $20,000 has also been allocated to repair work for the sewer line at the county library and the plumbing within the county jail.

This left a total of $489,000 to be spent as the commissioners convened last week.

Approved Projects

Two proposals came before the commissioners and received their blessing on Wednesday. The first was an E-911 system for the county.

“We need the E-911 and we have to pay for it somehow,” said Commissioner Jeanne Whalen. Either the taxpayer funds it, she continued, or the COVID-19 relief funds can do so.

“This is something that we really need and we’ve got to have it.”

An E-911 system will be mandatory within the next two years, which is no surprise to the county. In fact, the Sheriff’s Office has been saving to purchase one for a number of years through the surcharge placed on telephone lines.

However, with the deadline coming up, the commissioners agreed to allocate the $519,000 needed for the system from the ARPA funding. As it is to be paid for in two installments, half will be taken from the current balance and half from the second installment expected later this year.

The second proposal was for a new communications tower near Alva, which will improve the signal to emergency responders’ radios in that area. The total cost for this will be $27,370.

Remaining Funds

With both projects approved and the money already spent, around $200,000 is still available for eligible projects.

“I think maybe what you need to do is look at the application process that we’ve come up with at this particular stage,” said Baron on Wednesday.

He referred to the priority list created by county staff in response to the publication of the final rules. The list can be used to guide the commission’s decisions on project proposals that have been received from government and private entities alike.

“It’s up to you guys to decide. You have these funds, what are you going to spend them on?” continued Baron.

“This [priority list] includes all the things that were generally eligible that we know of for these funds, and it includes other local governments, water and sewer infrastructure, broadband and there’s other stuff on there – way more things that are eligible than we would ever have money for.”

The list places public health projects related to COVID-19 as the top priority. Second on the list is revenue replacement, through which counties can allocate a portion of ARPA funds to government services, up to the amount of revenue lost during the pandemic.

The third priority is revenue replacement to other local government entities, followed by premium pay, government infrastructure, water and sewer infrastructure, broadband, negative economic impacts and, finally, restoration of public sector capacity in public safety, public health and human services staff.

The priority list specifies that non-county entities will be limited to no more than 10% of the funds and will be expected to provide 10% of their own cash to receive a 90% match from the county – policies that are in line with the views expressed by the commissioners in previous conversations.

Though the priority list was created to assist in evaluating proposals, Baron stressed that the decisions ultimately lie with the county commissioners. It will be up to them which projects are of a higher priority than others, he said.

Commissioner Fred Devish said he feels the commission should concentrate first on funding items that the county is specifically responsible for, such as remodeling the courthouse basement or requests from courthouse offices or governmental entities. This, he said, would mean focusing on projects that benefit the entire county, rather than a subset of citizens.

Baron said it would be perfectly legitimate for the commission to concentrate on government requests first, before looking at those from private entities, but said it’s worth collecting proposals no matter what the final decisions may be.

“It’s not bad to have a lot of requests, it gives you an [idea] of what are the needs in the county,” he said.

It also gives the opportunity to spot needs that might be satisfied through some other means, Baron added, which would mean the county can then point the person or entity who made the request in the right direction, such as to consensus funding.

ARPA funding is expected to appear again on March’s agenda for the county commissioners.