After a nearly two-hour discussion, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors agreed on a rough framework Tuesday for spending its roughly $11 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The bulk of the money — some $5.4 million — would go towards water and sewer projects, although details on that will need to be worked out once the legislature decides how, and if, it will match funds from municipalities and counties.
About $3 million is set aside for government services and another $3 million is earmarked for crime prevention, nonprofits who have been hit hard by COVID-19 and tourism. Supervisors left the door open to helping the city of Columbus with blight remediation, but they did not float even a tentative figure for that.
The board held a work session after its regular meeting Tuesday morning. Supervisors spent about an hour and a half of that time kicking ideas around for projects that ranged from helping rural water associations to improving HVAC at the courthouse and the sheriff’s office to replacing the roof at the Maxxim Medical building.
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks pushed back on some of those ideas, arguing that the money needed to go to organizations and people who were directly affected by the pandemic.
“The people who could be impacted to some degree, they’re not going to see a dime (with those ideas),” Brooks said. “I’m not interested in supplanting the county budget to take care of things that we usually do through the budgetary process. … All I’m hearing is, ‘let’s build,’ and it’s all budgetary items. … The poor people of this county aren’t going to benefit a damn thing.”
Brooks presented his own list of suggestions, beginning with $5.4 million in water and sewer improvements. About $1.4 million of that is set aside for upgrades at the Lowndes County Industrial Development Authority’s property, with the rest divided between the Caledonia, Artesia, South Lowndes, Prairie Land, and East Lowndes rural water association, as well as Columbus Light and Water.
No specific dollar amounts were plugged in for the water associations and utilities because Brooks said he wants to wait for the legislature to decide about potential matching funds.
“This is just for a point of consideration,” he said. “That’s $5.4 million, we can add in $100,000 to make $5.5 million. With match (from the state) that could possibly be up to $11 million.”
County Administrator Jay Fisher estimated needed water and sewer proposals totaled about $14.9 million, but that was “straight cost” and did not include potential contributions from the water associations themselves.
The “government services” bucket of money includes mostly costs associated with the ARPA projects themselves, Brooks said. Thus far, about $342,000 has been set aside to pay consultants for supervision of ARPA funds; about $300,000 over four years has been earmarked for the salary for a county employee who would manage records and monitor ARPA funds for Lowndes County; and about $300,000 is estimated for future audits of ARPA spending.
Finally, about $3 million was targeted for “American Rescue Fund categories.” That umbrella includes about $250,000 for law enforcement enhancement, about $800,000 for nonprofits and about $465,000 for tourism recovery.
The city council has asked the supervisors for up to $1 million for blight remediation in Columbus and has said it will match whatever the supervisors put in. While Brooks’ plan left the door open for that, he said it was up to the city to put a dollar amount on it.
“They need to set what they want to put in,” Brooks said.
“They’re only getting $5 million,” Fisher said of the city’s ARPA funds. “I find it hard to believe that they’re going to put 20 percent of their money towards blighted property.”
“It’s so problematic in the city that it would change the perception of what’s going on in the city,” Brooks said. “They need a win, and I don’t think they’re going to put a million in, but they need to decide and then ask us.”
Brooks also laid out expenditures for tourism, which he said has suffered due to the pandemic itself and to the increase in prices left in its wake. He recommended giving $15,000 each per year for three years to Juneteenth, Southside Blues Festival, Seventh Avenue Festival, Market Street Festival and the Preservation Society of Columbus, which is running the Pilgrimage tour of homes. Caledonia Day, Crawford Day and the Columbus Arts Council would receive $10,000 a year for three years, according to Brooks’ plan. The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau would get $100,000 to promote tourism, and, finally, $50,000 would be used to buy a community stage that could be used at festivals and events.
Finally, Brooks recommended giving to community nonprofits who had been affected by the pandemic: $300,000 for the YMCA; $150,000 for the Boys and Girls Club; $200,000 for the Homeless Coalition; and $150,000 to the United Way. The supervisors asked that Last House on the Block, Community Counseling, Recovery House and Habitat for Humanity also be considered.
“I think this is pretty good,” said District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders.
The board agreed to take Brooks’ recommendation as a starting point and tweak it between now and its next regular meeting April 4, when another workshop will be held.
In other business, the supervisors approved a fleet management plan for the sheriff’s office. Enterprise Fleet Management will take over management of the department’s fleet, replacing and maintaining vehicles. The move is expected to save the department $1 million over the next 10 years.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said that first new cars are set to be on the road in about 90 days. The first year will see about 27 vehicles replaced: about 10 patrol vehicles with the rest for the investigative division and narcotics. The entire 77-vehicle fleet will be turned over within four years.
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