Marshall County Commissioners discuss spending final ARP Funds

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Subcommittee for Marshall County recommended to the County Commissioner on Monday how to use the remaining funding.

Commission Stan Klotz is a member of the subcommittee and told the commissioners the recommendation is to use the remaining $563,000 in three ways.  First, to purchase new voting machines.  The county’s current voting machines will be obsolete by the next presidential election, and the company has recommended purchasing new machines.  The cost is $263,200, and they are willing to split it over two years.  The subcommittee recommended entering into a contract with the company before the end of 2024 and purchasing the machines before the end of 2025. 

Commissioner Kevin Overmyer was concerned that new machines would need to be updated before the next presidential election but voted with the other two commissioners to purchase new voting machines. 

The second recommendation was to pay the paving cost for the new county parking lot at 211 West Jefferson Street. Initially, the committee had recommended Brooks Construction's low bid of $48,140, but the commissioner approved Rieth Riley's higher bid of $50,387, stipulating that the work be completed this year. The commissioners unanimously approved the additional amount to be paid using ARP funds. 

The final recommendation from the ARP Subcommittee was to give the remaining amount of nearly $250,000 to the Highway Department to contract for the purchase of bituminous and oil for the 2025 season. 

Commissioner Overmyer commented that the Highway Department has received approximately $5 million of ARP Funds over the last few years. He recommended sharing the funds with a couple of local agencies that provide assistance to those in the county who need assistance. Overmyer said he spoke with Chris Garner, Director of the Marshall County Neighborhood Center, and she said they are seeing an increase in the number of families needing food assistance. They are seeing about 350 families a month.  Garner said that the number of donors is down and that many who have helped regularly haven’t increased their giving while the cost of purchasing food is rising.

Overmyer suggested contracting with Aldi, the Neighborhood Center's main supplier, and providing funding to help the Neighborhood Center from November through February or March 2025.

Overmyer said there are other food pantries in the county, and he would see what their needs are and if there were a way to contract with a vendor to provide assistance.  He also suggested helping Linked-to-Hope but wasn’t sure if a vendor could be contracted with.        

Commissioners Mike Burroughs and Stan Klotz were supportive of the suggestion and asked Overmyer to take the lead on the plan.  He will present his findings to the commissioners at their next meeting on October 21.