The Johnson County Council approved Monday more than $3.7 million in spending on subdivision street repairs, fiber internet expansion and fire trucks in White River Township.
The bulk of the money, $2.5 million, is for the street repairs and fiber expansion, which are being funded with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. Money for new fire trucks, to cost about $1.2 million, comes from within White River Township Fire Department’s budget.
Road repairs
Originally, $3 million was requested for the road work, however, the number was reduced to $1.5 million because county officials are still trying to determine what roads are eligible to be repaired with ARPA dollars, said Kevin Walls, county commissioner.
“I don’t want to appropriate the $3 million until we know that all $3 million can go into subdivision roads,” Walls said.
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. Of the $30.7 million, $10 million of the county’s allotment is considered discretionary funds, meaning county officials have more leeway to decided what to spend the money on, said Shena Johnson, the county’s attorney.
The subdivision street money will be spent in neighborhoods predominately outside White River Township. This decision was made because most of the county’s road budget typically gets spent in White River Township, Walls said.
While there is a need for concrete streets repairs in the township, based on road assessments completed by the Johnson County Highway Department, rural subdivisions need work more immediately, said Luke Mastin, highway director.
“The amount of work that we’re able to do in any of those concrete streets, as far as reconstruction in those (White River Township) neighborhoods, is going to be entirely dependent upon what types of funding resources were are able to put towards that work,” Mastin said.
For the past two years, Mastin has applied funds from Indiana Department of Transportation’s Community Crossings matching grant program to county tax dollars to repair many of the worst concrete streets in White River Township.
The council unanimously approved allocating $1.5 million in ARPA funds.
Officials do plan to come back later this year to request and $1.5 million for additional street repairs, Walls said.
Fiber expansion
JCFiber, a local internet company that is a subsidiary of JCREMC, was also formally approved to receive a $1 million grant to give underserved county residents more internet options. The Johnson County Board of Commissioners approved the grant earlier in the day, and the council finalized the deal by allocating the funds.
The company came to the joint ARPA committee in February with a request for $2 million to expand its service areas to give underserved county residents more internet options. The ARPA committee ultimately decided to split the $2 million into two separate payments, with the second one under discussion for later this year.
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 earlier this year. The allocation will help JCFiber finish expansion projects that are already underway in White River, Union and Hensley Townships.
New fire trucks
White River Township Fire Department will replace two fire engines that are at the end of their useful life. One engine has been in service since 2007, said Michael Hoffman, community liaison for White River Township Fire.
Normally, the department orders replacement vehicles after the department’s budget is approved in the fall. However, because inflation and supply chain issues are pushing back delivery dates, the department and the fire protection district board wanted to be proactive and order new vehicles now, said Jeremy Pell, the township’s fire chief. The department also recently ordered an ambulance and the delivery date of the ambulance has already been pushed back due to supply chain issues, he said.
“We have gotten a tremendous deal on these engines, saving $75,000 per engine over the next fire engine that would meet our needs,” Pell said. “The district and I both feel it’s essential because it’s more than a significant savings for the community and get the appropriation now.”
