Logan County Board: ARPA funds and needs comparatives planned

 

[February 14, 2022] 

At the Logan County Board’s February Finance Committee meeting discussion was on management and options for using American Restoration Plan Act funds.

In 2021, 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 million, which was to be disbursed in two separate $2.75M installments. The first installment came in the fall and the second one will come in 2022.

Last Sunday, Finance Committee Chairman Steve Jenness met with a subcommittee to discuss different options for using the funds, but not designating any funding yet. The subcommittee was not determining what was important and what was not.

The county must justify where funds are spent and why they were spent that way. Therefore, Jenness reminded the committee the board needs to be careful about how they designate ARPA funds because it is a federal grant.

There were submissions to ARPA for televisions, iPads, computers and keyless door locks for the courthouse. While they were not outright denied, the county was told these do not fall within the guidelines of what ARPA funds are intended.

There has been $400,000 set aside in a contingency fund for the 2021-2022 budget. Jenness said the subcommittee thought some of the contingency funds could be used to purchase computers, iPads, and televisions.

The keyless door locks may possibly be covered in the restoration funding. Committee member David Blankenship said there has been talk about having card entry for doors in the courthouse.

Playground equipment and lighting were also on a list of options for using ARPA funds. Jenness said these could be covered by the CRESCO grant earmarked for community projects.

Because the board had previously voted to use ARPA funds for the playground equipment, Board Chairman Emily Davenport said they may need to redo that vote. They are trying to use other funds for some of these areas and save ARPA funds for bigger projects like broadband and jail expansion.

Last month, the committee discussed using some ARPA funds for a company called Exela to help with scanning files to discs or microfilm. Logan County Circuit Clerk Kelly Elias made the initial request.

Jenness would like to see how much it would cost for other departments to also have files scanned because he feels a group utilizing the scanning could be good. He does not like having so many files stored in the basement.

What Elias needs to scan is different from other departments, and they do not use the same programs she uses. Some items can be accessed through the cloud, but not all.

One vault in the treasurer’s office is full of tax documents that must be kept forever. Logan County Treasurer Penny Thomas said some of them have never been saved electronically. Eventually, the county will need to find more space to store these documents. Some documents have been in a room in a basement and were damaged by mold and mildew.

These records could be digitally stored, but Thomas said that would not help with what is already stored in the courthouse. She could get a price estimate for scanning.

When looking at options for ARPA funding, two big projects that have been discussed are broadband and jail expansion. Jenness said the subcommittee discussed applying $3 million in ARPA funds to broadband and $2 million to updating the jail.

With broadband funds, Davenport said they would at least have matching grants.

Since the jail is full, Logan County Sheriff Mark Landers said we need to figure out something. When they are at full capacity, there is no space for inmates who need to be quarantined or isolated. Moneywise, Landers said the county needs to come up with a solution.

After last week’s Building and Grounds Committee meeting, Landers checked about a referendum for public safety sales tax. What he found out is that the second half of the one percent allowed was used for the courthouse, so nothing is left in it. Landers is waiting to hear more from the bonding agent about bonding limits for the county.

Committee member David Hepler asked if the board could move to put a facilities tax referendum on the ballot.

A facilities tax referendum was approved in 2020 for the courthouse restoration. Landers said the half cent approved for the facilities tax took up half of the one percent allowable. The other half was approved for a public safety sales tax in 2005. His understanding is that they have used the full amount allowable for these sales taxes.

The county has until 2026 to spend ARPA funding. Landers is not expecting the county to do major projects at the same time. He feels some of the money could be set aside for the future and be invested. Other grants might be available in a couple years.

What Landers feels the county needs is a three-to-five-year strategic plan. The county may need to think outside the box to bring revenue in.

Other counties are utilizing their newer jail facilities to generate revenue, but Landers said we are not in that position right now.
 

With $2M, Jenness thinks they could do some revamping at the existing jail facility.

If the county wants to invest $2M in a facility with problems, Landers is not sure where that would go. He could look into it and possibly apply for initiative grants to add to it.

Water, sewer lines and HVAC are failing systems, but Landers said adding spaces is a bigger priority. Landers previously talked to the board about using correction pods for housing inmates. The problem with these pods is that additional staffing would be needed since they are not connected to the building.

When it comes to broadband, Hepler said the figures he heard from a proposal by the company WANRack were $5M to $6M. These would just cover phase one, which Hepler thought would mainly be in Lincoln. He is assuming construction costs will continue to escalate.

Phase two would get broadband to Mount Pulaski, Broadwell, Atlanta, Elkhart and other parts of the county. Hepler said phase two might be an additional $1M to $2M.

In putting the two figures together, Hepler said they are looking at $8M for project costs.
 

With $3M put in for broadband, Hepler said they are pretty much saying the county will only do broadband for Lincoln and not the other smaller communities. He would have a hard time supporting that.

To be able to cover the rest of the county, Hepler thinks the county might need to put $4M towards broadband. The state would probably match the $4M with a grant.

Jenness asked if there were any estimates on shared revenue.

At this point, committee member Keenan Leesman said they have not gotten into those discussions yet. What Leesman is looking into right now is construction costs per mile. He wants to see how many miles they could cover with the amount of funding the county is willing to put in.

What Leesman said they are considering is putting in 70 miles of fiber optics through the county. If they know the cost per mile, he said that will help the board decide what phases can be done.

Since smaller more rural communities may have less internet access, Davenport wondered about starting the project with these areas.

To Leesman, Lincoln is the center hub that spokes out to the other communities. He said it is better to start in Lincoln and then go down 121 towards Mount Pulaski. Fiber optic networks could then go to Hartsburg and Emden, Atlanta and Lawndale, and Broadwell and Elkhart.

The configuration Leesman produced is a giant X that covers a majority of the communities the county could afford in the first round. Leesman said starting in the smaller communities does not make as much sense when broadband technically resides in Lincoln. The majority of resources will start when broadband is already in Lincoln.

Davenport wants to possibly ask the city of Lincoln if they would consider pitching in money for the project.

Lincoln received ARPA funds, so Leesman said if they choose to use some of it for broadband that could help alleviate some funding concerns.

Even though broadband may cost $8M, Landers said we do not know how much revenue it may generate. Before the county approves the projects, Landers asked if they would be told what the revenue generation might be.

Without knowing what the county might get out of the project revenue wise, Leesman said he would not commit to a blanket option. When bringing broadband to a community that has nothing, you cannot expect immediate revenue generation.

Leesman has talked to Hartsburg and will be talking to various other communities about their needs. He is trying to be the middle mile connectivity from where broadband is in Lincoln to the actual communities. Schools and businesses could access the network.

What Leesman hopes is that businesses will access broadband and give it to the end user. A company would pay money to access the fiber network and then the county could get a percentage of the revenue generated.

It may take time for the broadband to bring in economic development. However, Leesman said it is an investment intended to generate revenue, bring in businesses and a tax base. He will make sure broadband will generate revenue before running it to communities who may not think they need it.

The hope is that broadband would give these communities something to tap into. Leesman said homes and wireless internet providers could tap into the fiber network so underserved communities could have better internet access.

Municipalities can generate revenue by charging for the use of the network. By looking at projects done in similar communities, Jenness said he thinks the county could estimate what kind of revenue it would generate.

With the two big projects under consideration, Jenness said he is trying to figure out the best of both worlds.

Due to a change in ARPA guidelines, Thomas said they can put all the funding in the general fund as lost revenue.

Jenness asked for a motion to put the ARPA funds in lost revenue with a specific line item dedicated to ARPA. That way, the funds will be in the budget and the county will have access to them. Then any of the projects the county decides to do can be expensed out of that line item.

Because the money does not need to be designated until 2024, the committee decided to wait on bringing the motion forward to the full board. They will continue discussing these issues next month.

[Angela Reiners]