By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Even with all the American Rescue Plan Act money Kosciusko County has spent so far, it still has about $5 million left.

The county and all other jurisdictions that received ARPA funds have until Dec. 31, 2024, to obligate the money and until Dec. 31, 2026, to fully expend it.

Thursday night, the Kosciusko County Council approved a total of $121,515.85 in ARPA expenditures as recommended by the county’s ARPA committee. The commissioners will need to approve the items at their next meeting so the council can approve additional appropriations for them at their February meeting.

Approved Thursday were:

• Claypool Town Marshal Ben Sanders’ request for $32,991.54 for new radios due to the county’s new public safety communication system. That will cover six new portable radios for all six Claypool officers and two mobile radios for both squad cars.
• The Beaman Home requested $37,066.68 for improvements to The Beaman Home property. Councilwoman Kimberly Cates abstained because she sits on The Beaman Home Board of Directors and Councilwoman Joni Truex voted against it because no one from The Beaman Home attended the meeting to make the request.
• Combined Community Services requested $18,859.25 for a truck.

“The truck they thought they could buy for the amount they thought they could buy it for was not available, therefore, it cost them a little bit more money. They went out and actually got some other entities in the community to try to help with funding it. However, by the time they finished, they were $18,859.25 short and that included being able to put a wrap around the truck so it would be a visual that would show people that Combined Community Services is here and that they are out in the community working,” Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell explained.

CCS also asked for a garage to put the truck in, but Mitchell said the ARPA committee tabled that request.

No one from CCS was present so, again, Truex voted against the request.

• Funding requests for communication equipment from the Syracuse Police Department, $14,140.94; Town of Milford Police Department, $18,457.44; and Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, $154,272.94.

Mitchell said that even with the $121,515.85 approved Thursday, “we still have someplace in the neighborhood of $5 million.” She said the ARPA committee will be looking at some “very sizeable projects possibly for the county to move some of our stuff forward.”

Mitchell then made an announcement she wanted to make sure got out.

“March 8 will be the last we will be doing any changes for radios for the police, fire, EMS — for any of them. The deadline to submit that should be the 27th of February so that the auditor’s office has time to process it before we’re ready to look at it for the ARPA committee,” she said. “This isn’t an open invitation. This is serious needs that are still not being met because radios don’t work.”

County Administrator Marsha McSherry then presented a request for additional appropriations for all of the ARPA grants provided by the county in 2022. The additional appropriations are required to move those dollars from 2022 to 2023 to be able to use those funds.

“These are project grants that have already been approved,” she said.

The additional appropriations include $9,052 for office disinfection; $284,077 for communication radios; $981,325 for public safety communication; $727,109 for administrative expenses; $25,000 for LaunchPad; $200,000 for Justice Building fire alarm; $222,795 for tower connectivity; $16,103 for Animal Welfare League cat house renovation; $31,580 for IT Meraki Access Points; $47,177 for IT network switches; $78,265 for IT Secure email service; $100,000 for Lakeland Regional Sewer District Ferrie chlorine storage; $1.2 million for HELP Kosciusko; $200,000 for Cardinal Ability Campaign; $22,445 for Historical Society HVAC/building repairs; $100,000 for CCS HVAC/box truck; $48,251 for Central Dispatch hardware; $25,000 for Kosciusko County Community Corrections communication radios; $29,465 for Mentone FWAS radios; $158,874 for Fellowship Missions shelter security and laundry machines; and $67,708 for HVAC repairs for county buildings.

McSherry reported to the council work on the fire alarm system in the Justice Building will begin Jan. 23. The work should take about 1-1/2 weeks.

She also said the tech committee’s meeting for the public safety communications project is Tuesday. They will go over any issues that have been forthcoming .

“It’s an ongoing process,” McSherry said.