BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Editor
LAKE BUTLER — The Union County Board of County Commissioners carefully considering the best way to use the funds made available through the Federal American Rescue Plan Act, working to create a spending plan that will make the best use of the funds.
A draft of a possible plan was discussed at a recent commission workshop in April 2022. Funds, provided by the U.S. Treasury, will be used to cover the costs of expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency created by COVID-19, expenditures not accounted for in the budget most recently approved (as of March 11, 2021 and expenditures incurred and or obligated between March 11, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2024 (deadline for these expenditures being Dec. 31, 2026.
The Board will use the provided funding to reimburse the county for necessary expenditures made by the county in response to the public health emergency and other, secondary effects of the emergency, including providing economic support to individuals and businesses whose work or business was effected by the emergency. All of these expenditures will be made according to the Treasury Final Rule guidelines for the ARPA.
The total amount of the funds is $2,959,609. Expenditures of funds will fall in three of the five allowed categories.
The largest expense to be covered is in public health expenses incurred or to be incurred, accounting for 85% of the available funds ($2,515,667.60). These expenses will include personal protective equipment (both for and not for direct medical use), payroll for public health, safety and other public sector staff, recreational/parks facility projects (for better social distancing issues), capital investments for county facilities (improvements to EMS/Fire and the courthouse), grants to small businesses, grants to individual households for rent and mortgage aid, sick leave for employees with COVID-19 and those who had to take time off to care for a family member with COVID-19, as well as quarantine measures and equipment/ambulance and communications.
The second category to be funded by ARPA funds is premium pay expenses, accounting for 10% of the funds ($295,960.90). These are additional compensation to county workers who shouldered extra responsibility, and/or substantial risk during the pandemic. Essentially a type of “hazardous duty pay,” these funds will go to county employees who maintained the operation of critical county operations and infrastructure in a manner that required in-person interactions and handling of materials and equipment previously handled by others. (This does not cover any employees engaged in a work-from-home situation.). This expenditure is broken down into two parts – premium pay to eligible workers in the county and the offices of the constitutional officers and pay incentives for recruitment purposes, to fill needed open positions.
The county does not anticipate any spending in the infrastructure category, as it does not provide services such as sewer, water and broadband services.
The county is also not planning on spending any of the funds on the revenue replacement category, although the rules allow small counties to use up to $10 million in funds for these purposes.
The final category is for administrative and other expenses, with the draft of the plan showing an expenditure of 5% of the funds ($147,980.45) for this purpose. These are the costs of administering the funds and include actual administration costs, the single audit required by the ARPA and any grant matching funds associated with the pandemic.
According to County Coordinator Jimmy Williams, the only portion of the funds already spent is most of that planned for premium pay and capital improvements for public safety (the purchase of 10 acres in Providence to create a refill station for fire protection services) in the amount of $195,904. He reported to the board the money budgeted for recreation/park projects is allowed to be used for the fencing at the parks and at the EMS building and that any grants given to small businesses must be monitored by the county.
Williams also told the board that some of the funds can be used as matching funds on specific grants, but he was not confident as to what grants might be available. He cited the fact that there is a 24 month waiting list for new ambulance chassis, a shortage that might affect whether or not grants would be available.
Union County Clerk of Court Kellie Hendricks Rhoades told the board that none of the funds were allowed to be placed in the reserves, but that if the ARPA funds were used to pay for items already budgeted for then the savings to the county could be placed in the reserves.
Williams told commissioners that they needed to remember that the ARPA funds would not be a recurring thing, that they were just a “band-aid.”
“This is really not a lot of money when the county’s needs are considered,” Williams said. “Now is the time for smart purchases so we can get as much use as possible out of the money. Spend in a way that will not cost the county more money in the long run.”
Williams gave the courthouse lighting as an example.
“The courthouse electric bill is about $3,800 a month right now,” he said. “If we do the needed replacement with the same type of lighting the operation cost will just go up. If we, instead, purchase LED lighting then we would greatly reduce the cost of operation.”
Emergency Management Director Tim Allen made the suggestion that each department create a needs list and submit it to the board. The board could then look at the list and prioritize the items as it thought best. Williams added that he could get the cost of each item on the needs lists and then present the information to the board for their consideration.
The commissioners all agreed that more time and consideration was needed before a final spending plan was approved and asked Williams to proceed with Allen’s suggestion. The matter was tabled for further study and consideration unanimously.
“We have the time to take out time with this and make sure that we are both spending within the rules for expending the funds and also using them to the greatest benefit to the county,” said Board Chairman Jimmy Tallman.
