Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe makes a request for American Rescue Plan Act funds for the town of Pierceton’s sidewalk project to the county’s ARPA Committee Wednesday. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — To help Pierceton with its sidewalk project, the Kosciusko County American Rescue Plan Act Committee voted Wednesday, Oct. 16, to recommend a $67,201.55 grant to the town.

The award will still need approval by the county commissioners and council.

In presenting the request to the ARPA Committee, Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe said the town’s one project in the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program has went over budget due to unexpected circumstances. The project had to be rebid and came in over $105,000 over the budget.

She said County Administrator Marsha McSherry uncovered there was some funds that were already earmarked toward H.E.L.P. that were unappropriated. Roe said she had multiple conversations with County Commissioner Cary Groninger, who also sits on the ARPA Committee, on the matter.

“Pierceton is able to and willing to put in the amount of — I think — $35,000 to $38,000, but does not have the full amount to be able to do the full overage. So they do have a limited amount, so it just kind of made sense to take this money that was unappropriated and put that toward that project,” she said. “In my humble opinion, Pierceton has done more than their fair share of work and overcoming obstacles to be able to make this project happen, and I think it’s a good-faith measure to be able to provide this for them for the hard work that they’ve done.”

On Oct. 3, Pierceton Town Council approved a bid for the sidewalk project. Chad Salzbrenner, senior project manager at Fleis & VandenBrink, recommended the council approve the bid from Phend & Brown for $399,059. The town received four bids for the construction of a 6-foot-wide concrete sidewalk, with ADA ramps, on School Street to Third Street, and then on Third Street from School Street to Catholic Street. Phend & Brown’s presented bid was the lowest out of the four.

Salzbrenner said the bid was 4.13% higher than the engineer’s opinion of probable cost of $383,234, but said Phend & Brown was a qualified company to handle the project. He also noted it was a fair price for the expected work.

Roe said Wednesday that Pierceton’s H.E.L.P. project has been a lot more challenging than any of the other H.E.L.P. projects, but the town has worked hard.

“I feel like this is just a small token of the county’s appreciation to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got this money.’ It’s already earmarked for the HELP. We can put that towards this project to make sure this gets complete, because getting this project complete makes sure we don’t mess up any of the other projects. We don’t want to impact other projects that other communities have already had their release of funds executed,” Roe said.

Representatives of the Pierceton Town Council were unable to make Wednesday’s ARPA Committee meeting because of the timing of the meeting, but Roe said they will be at the commissioners and council meetings.

Groninger said, “There were some Revolving Loan Funds that were at KEDCO, it was an OCRA grant.” He said they were in the process of trying to figure out how to spend that and they were told all the way up to last Wednesday that they could use that money to offset any shortfall in the H.E.L.P. projects.

“Well, last week they came back and said no deal,” he stated. “So that kind of kicked what money we thought we had — it was a Community Development Block Grant that we could use that got kicked out.”

He agreed that Pierceton worked hard on the project and they had to rebid it once to get it to be around $100,000 less than the first bid. Groninger said the town is doing everything it can to get the amount down, but the project has been a little bit of a “hot potato” in Pierceton as far as some residents don’t want a sidewalk that goes to the school in front of their house.

“But the board’s continued to want to support this project. They see the need, they see the value for the community. They just need a little more money to get it across the finish line,” Groninger said.

Roe said this project is essential for the town of Pierceton and the town board understands why.

“For Pierceton to continue to be eligible for state grants, and to be seen as somebody who can finish well, this has to be done. So they understand that and they’re working and navigating through the challenges in their own community and doing a really great job of engaging and talking to those citizens and taking care of the concerns. But they want to finish well because they want to go for other grants, and you have to be known as someone who can finish well, so for them they’re just trying to get this finished and they’re so close. It’s just this one small piece that would help them go over the finish line and execute that well and be open for other grants in the future that state agencies have available,” she explained.

Groninger said the $67,201.55 wouldn’t be taking more money out of the ARPA bucket, but reclassifying dollars that were already appropriated for H.E.L.P. but just wasn’t put toward a project.

In making the motion to approve the grant to the town, Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell said, “I believe, as you said, Pierceton’s jumped through a hoop to try to get there. Since we have the fix for it, I believe that would be an appropriate thing to spend it on.”

Councilman Mike Long seconded the motion and it passed 3-0.