County officials are about to make their first purchases with the nearly $31 million in federal funds they received through the American Rescue Plan Act.
The American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, is a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package that delivered direct relief to Americans and distributed billions to states to respond to the pandemic and to give to cities, towns and counties to respond to the pandemic. Indiana officials distributed $1.28 billion to communities, including about $30.7 million for Johnson County.
The money can be used for a variety of purposes, including responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency, negative economic impacts of the emergency, providing premium pay to employees, off-setting lost government revenue, and upgrading water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.
There also is a provision approved in January that allows for up to $10 million in discretionary funds to be used for the provision of government services. It is very broad and gives the county some leeway for some projects, said Shena Johnson, the county’s attorney.
The county has been coming up with ways to spend the money since late last year, and created a joint commissioners-county council committee to generate ideas and narrow down the projects.
Three of those ideas took a step closer to fruition on Monday. The Johnson County Board of Commissioners authorized $366,000 to be used for projects.
The first will address the county surveyor’s office plans to update the county’s watershed maps. The last time the maps were updated was in the 1980s, and the office is planning to look at all 49 watersheds in the county as part of the project. The updates will determine what properties are part of each watershed and reassess drainage rates that are paid by property owners, and also look at the need to repair drains, and prepare for future land use and maintenance, according to county documents.
The county authorized $166,000, which will cover professional services for the project, county documents show. The surveyor’s office initially requested the funds in February to kick off the project, but the Johnson County Council wanted to see if ARPA funds could be used for it.
The other $200,000 in ARPA funds will be used to start two new building projects, with the money being split evenly between the two. The first is for an addition at the Johnson County Animal Shelter, which needs more space due to the sheer number of animals being brought in, said Brian Baird, county commissioner.
“We’ve run out of rescues (to take animals to) and room,” Baird said. “The numbers have grown so high that the recovery time is going to be a long, long time. This is probably an add-on we really need to do regardless.”
County officials tentatively earmarked $1.25 million for the project during a February ARPA committee meeting.
The last project the county initiated was for the construction of a new facility on about 1.83 acres the county owns along Drake Road in Franklin. The facility would house the health department and coroner’s office, and would have a flexible mixed-use space upstairs, said Kevin Walls, county commissioner.
County officials have been considering building something like this for a long time, and hope to include a clinic with it as well, Baird said. There is a great need for a single facility, especially for the coroner’s office, said Jon T. Myers, county council member.
About $5 million was set aside for the project.
Those plans will now go to the county council for final approval.
The projects are just a few of several proposals county officials are looking at.
Among the proposals, the county is looking at giving JCFiber, a local internet provider, $2 million to give underserved county residents more internet options. There are about 3,000 to 4,000 underserved residents in the county, and the project would create a partnership between the county and JCFiber to close the digital divide, John Sturm, JCFiber president, said last month.
“Every penny benefits Johnson County residents,” Sturm said.
The county is also looking at possibly helping fund a park for Nineveh residents. Discussions are still very early, Baird said.
Officials also want to use ARPA funds for a to-be-determined project focused on addressing mental health needs in the county.
Other potential projects include giving county employees a stipend, and road projects. Those proposals are still being worked out, but officials have set aside about $16 million for all projects currently under consideration.
