Supervisors hear additional ARPA funding option

Board of Supervisors
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     Tony Amsler of Monticello met with the Jones County Supervisors during their June 14 board meeting to offer comments regarding the county’s $4 million in ARPA funding.

   Supervisor Jon Zirkelbach explained that the board held a public hearing regarding the ARPA funding on May 17. Amsler said he was unable to attend that evening.

   “We just heard people’s ideas; we did not discuss them or have a question-and-answer session,” Zirkelbach said of the process.

   “I want to throw another proposal into the mix with everything else,” offered Amsler.

   His suggestion is for the board of supervisors “to consider the administrative side of this multi-year project. How best to track and report the appropriation of $4 million of ARPA funds to the required entities, as well as the citizens of Jones County.”

   Amsler said the board could use a small portion of the ARPA funds to hire an administrative assistant to the board for a period of three or four years as the county spends the funds. (The funds have to be committed by 2024, and fully spent by the end of 2026.) Amsler said often times, funds like this “authorize 3 to 5 percent for administrative costs.”

   He highlighted multiple tasks this position could take on:

   • Keep and maintain all records related to ARPA funding

   • Track, record, and communicate with all funding entities approved by the board (wherever the funding is going)

   • Assist the board chair in organizing the weekly board meetings

   • Prepare a post board meeting agendas and minutes

   • Conduct fact-finding and research on issues facing the board of supervisors

   • Provide daily contact for county residents and county department heads

   “This position could be part-time or full-time,” suggested Amsler.

   He asked the board where they are at in terms of a timeframe for committing the funds.

   Supervisor Joe Oswald said they are waiting on a report from Shive-Hattery regarding the overall condition of the courthouse, as well as a study of the jail. All of this would play into a decision on a new law enforcement center.

   “We hope to have it within another month or so,” Oswald offered, ‘so we can start making a decision.”

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