Jail expansion, document storage, employee premium pay and broadband in line for Logan County’s ARPA funds

 

[February 02, 2022] 

The Logan County Board Finance Committee held a special meeting Monday, January 24 to discuss ARPA Funds and requests.

Last fall, the county received an infusion of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. The American Rescue Plan Act was signed by President Joe Biden in March 2021 to help combat economic impacts of Covid-19. Logan County was eligible for $5.5 M, which was to be disbursed in two separate $2.75 M installments. The first installment came in the fall and the second one will come in 2022.

Finance Committee Chairman Steve Jenness began by asking department heads to share needs and funding requests.

Logan County Sheriff Mark Landers said the county needs to start talking about implementation of plans for the jail. In the past the county has done referendums, and some have failed narrowly. Landers has been talking to Senator Sally Turner and said the county has an opportunity to get funding through a member initiative grant from the state. Landers hopes they might be able to use some ARPA money for a portion of that as well.

The Champaign County Board moved forward to use $5 million of their ARPA money for consolidation of their new jail. Landers said the last bid that we had from the architect was $7.8 million for an addition to the current jail. Adding on was the least expensive option because building a new facility was going to be about $15 M to $16 M for a new jail. The addition that they talked about putting up was a 60 to 70 bed facility.

There has been talk about revenue streams and being able to look toward the future. Landers said there are some county jails that have large numbers of beds not being utilized. Last year, Logan County ended up paying about $10,000 to help house inmates in other facilities because we were over filled and because of covid issues.

If the county were to do an addition, Landers said there are opportunities out there and it could provide extra space.

The jail was built in 1978 and Landers said it was not built for the current conditions the county is dealing with related to the pandemic. The facility was built to house 35 inmates and there is double that in there. Landers said there are no areas to place arrestees when they come into the facility. There is not enough space to separate them from the general population. The mental health issues that some are fighting need to be addressed. Landers feels these issues could be helped by having more space.

If you can get that number down with the grant money from the state, along with some ARPA money, then there would be less for the taxpayers to fund. Landers said there may be something coming down the pike with the federal initiative that came through with infrastructure. Though Landers is not asking for something to be done overnight, he said we need to come up with a plan. As the committee looks at how to spend the money, Landers is asking the finance committee to consider using a portion towards funding an addition.

With a 60, 70 or 80 bed facility Landers believes we would be able to not only fix our issues with our inmates, but also create a revenue stream that would possibly help pay that off. Landers said he could resubmit the architectural design for the addition.

To know what Landers is looking for, Jenness said he would like to see a full proposal and step process.

Since pods are something that have been considered for adding space, Board Chairman Emily Davenport asked about their costs.

With pods, Landers said costs would be around $2.5 M. They would also have to add sewer lines, which would be another $1 M. Landers said the costs would end up being around $4.5 M to $5 M and it would just be a temporary solution. Additionally, since pods would not be attached, Landers would have to double the staffing to staff both housing units.

In old proposals, Jenness asked if they had added revamping of sewer lines. He also wanted to know how long the existing jail could last with a new addition.

There have been some collapses in the sewer lines. Landers said when they built the jail, the sewer line was placed underneath. If there was a break around the kitchen area it would be catastrophic for the building because they would have to jackhammer up all of that.

Even if the county received a grant and used ARPA money, there would still be a shortfall on the money needed for an addition. Finance Committee member David Hepler asked if there was another mechanism for funding, aside from a facilities tax.

Ultimately, Landers said the county would have to decide where to spend money and how much to put towards an addition. Looking for infrastructure grants and paying off some debts could open some funding. He said something needs to be done soon.

For the last 20 years, Landers said there have been deficiencies. He said the new addition could carry the county for the next 50 years because they would then only use the existing facility for overflow.

As new mandates come down, Landers said he knows cash bail is going to be gone; so currently for certain (types of) crimes people, are not coming to jail, but for other crimes there is no bail. As Landers had told the safety committee, there are people out on bond right now that would not be out on bond under the new law. The people in the jail right now have not committed simple misdemeanor crimes.

The facility is not a mental health facility, and yet they deal with mental health issues. They could use space to segregate someone with mental health or disciplinary issues. They could also use more space for isolating people who need to be quarantined.

Logan County Circuit Clerk Kelly Elias next shared information about getting files her office has at Iron Mountain that were scanned. She has a bid from a company that could scan files the county is storing at Iron Mountain right now. Since the files are off site, Elias said it is tough to obtain them.

With the digital copy, Jenness asked whether it would be on CDs or kept on a server.

Due to state guidelines for archives, Elias said they must put files on microfilm to send to lawyers and judges. The criminal division has a microfilm machine they have put many files on. The company she has talked to has a program that can import files directly into the case management system the clerk’s office is currently using.

Some of the boxes stored at Iron Mountain could now be destroyed, and Elias would not need those scanned. However, there are still many files in the courthouse basement and Elias said they need to be moved. All the felonies and adoption juvenile records are down there.

The Circuit Clerk’s started scanning records that are from 2012 forward, so Elias said most of the records from recent years are already scanned. It is the older documents they must put on microfilm. Right now, Elias said she has a program that will put documents in a PDF format that can be emailed to whoever needs them or to the judges. Some of those case types don’t even exist anymore, so Elias cannot put those into the computer.

With the bid from the company, Jenness wanted to know what is included in the price.

Elias said the estimate is for closed case scanning. She knows the numbers have probably changed since June. The amounts are approximate.

Iron Mountain is working on an inventory, so Elias is hoping to get everything moved from Iron Mountain to the courthouse soon. She would then not have to use them for storage anymore, which would save the county money.

Since other departments may need files scanned, Davenport asked if they could collaborate. She would like to get a list of who needs scanning done. They could then get a new quote.

Though Elias is not sure of the scanning needs in other offices, she said they could probably do that.

Elias then spoke on behalf of her employees about premium pay. She knows the number employees were originally told they might get may not be feasible. Elias wondered if the county was looking at other amounts.

In the past week, Elias said she read that Mclean and Macon Counties recently approved premium pay. In 2022, McLean County’s essential full time government employees will be paid $1,000 bonus for the work during the first year of the pandemic. Essential part time employees will receive $500 for their work. Elias read a quote from January 13th article about Mclean that said, “we really thought now was the time to recognize employees for the commitment to the county and to their continuing operations through covid.”

In Macon County, Elias said premium pay went up to $1,500 for full time employees and $750 for part time employees. Elias said she wanted to get an idea of the areas around our county. She has not looked every nearby county.

Because the county has been considering premium pay, Jenness thanked her for reminding the county to stay on top of it. It is something the finance committee is still discussing. Bellwether told him ARPA guidelines prioritize premium pay for lower paid workers. Jenness said they need to work with the states attorney to understand the guidelines.

Work in the County Clerk’s Office is considered essential and so they stayed open during the pandemic. Therefore, County Clerk Teresa Moore said employees in her office would appreciate premium pay. She would also like to see about pricing for scanning paper copies to microfilm.

In the Treasurer’s Office, Treasurer Penny Thomas said they have documents they could scan in the office and save electronically. She said using ARPA funds to combine and save files would save the county money.

As for premium pay, Thomas said she knows it is a struggle for the board to decide what to do with ARPA funds when different counties look at it different ways. Thomas said what is hard on the employees is knowing whether the board is going to approve premium pay or not. The premium pay is something Thomas would like to see.

What Thomas would like the board to do is to go through their priority lists and decide what should be done first, second and so on. If the filing system is down the line, Thomas said departments would benefit in knowing that.

Jenness said they are trying to figure out what to do with some of the funding due to the changes. He wants to get a list together of what every department needs and check off what is most important. He plans to have a subcommittee review some of the requests.

After the county employees addressed the committee, Finance Committee member Keenan Leesman talked about broadband. Expanding broadband fits in with ARPA guideline. Leesman shared what he has in mind for expanding broadband infrastructure when it comes to fiber optics. He is looking at something that would help county offices and all municipalities throughout the county. The hope is that it could expand county service to municipalities.

With broadband, Leesman said the idea is to spur economic development and potentially provide opportunities to underserved areas. He hopes broadband could add connectivity to school districts that are currently underserved or struggling. Leesman said it is intended to drive down prices and offer increased competition for similar businesses. This architecture would be open to any individual or business or category government entity to utilize.

The project is intended to be self-sustaining. Leesman has made some contacts with the state. There are broadband funds specifically that will match or exceed amounts from the county funds. He was hoping to get more information after meeting with a company this week that has worked with about 28 other counties throughout the United States. Since it may be expensive, Leesman said the project could be done in phases. It could be as big or as small as the county wants it to be.

Jenness will be setting up the subcommittee to review requests and compile this all together with hopes to have a tentative plan at February’s Finance Committee meeting.

Due to some of the rule changes for ARPA, Davenport said they could change everything to lost revenue.

Board member Dale Nelson said he would like to see the board come up with some hard dates for determining premium pay and other ARPA requests. He feels the board needs to move forward and show commitment to county employees. Nelson would like Jenness to share something with the board by next month.

The county has received about $2.8 million, which Davenport said is why she has hesitated on some decisions. She asked if the county would receive the other half of the $5.5 M in June.

There is a possibility the second half of the funding could come in May. Thomas said April 1 is when the final ruling on new ARPA guidelines takes place, so it may be better to wait on some decisions until then. She reminded the committee that ARPA money is for the whole county, so it would be good to use to benefit the whole county.

The county audit is done in April. After the audit, Jenness said there may be recovered monies in the budget that could be used too.

Leesman asked if there is any assurance that we can keep up with demands of scanning.

With some documents, Elias said they could be scanned and then shredded. Elias said her office is currently paperless. When minutes are typed up in some offices, Elias said they can also be put on a flash drive.

Elias said her understanding of ARPA funds is that they were given to help counties prepare for the next pandemic. If we do not do some of these projects such as scanning (documents,) Elias said the county is not likely to be prepared.

In all the projects being considered, Jenness said they would help the county be prepared for a pandemic.

It must come down to priorities and Landers said he knows the board cannot make everyone happy. He has a large budget, but Landers said it is because the sheriff’s department covers public safety and liability. Though Landers hopes to get something from the state through the infrastructure, he is not hopeful.

In February, Jenness hopes the Finance Committee will have something to bring forward to the board regarding use of ARPA funds.

Since not everything will be finalized until April, Leesman said he does not think the board should vote on something before it is finalized.

The Finance Committee could set up a tentative timeline and framework for ARPA funds. Jenness said the board may be able to wait on voting on it.

Discussion of ARPA funding will continue at the February 8, Finance Committee meeting.

[Angela Reiners]