Members of a Vermilion County Board committee are continuing discussions on how the county should spend millions of dollars in federal ARPA money. Bill Pickett has more….
The county originally received over $14-million dollars under the program designed to help recover from the recession caused by the pandemic.
Steve Miller chairs the Finance and Personnel Committee of the County Board….
{AUDIO: ‘’We are still trying to take stock of what needs to be done at the county. We feel obligated to make that our first priority, and to help the other units of government as much as we can, but to face some of the very substantial capital improvements that we are going to have to undertake.’’}
Vermilion Circuit Clerk Melissa Quick hopes to get some of the ARPA funds in order to microfilm old court cases…
{AUDIO: ‘’According to the State Archives, they require us to microfilm them and provide them with a copy. And we’re just going to make it streamlined having our records available. Currently they’re in boxes. Our basement is full of boxes of old records, and we want to digitize them to where we could easily access them for the public.’’}
Quick says it’s an enormous project because some of the cases in boxes stored in the courthouse basement date back to the 1980s.
The committee agreed to recommend to the full county board that it award $1.4 million dollars in ARPA funds to the Higgensville Road project, and nearly $9,500 in additional funds for a siren project in Muncie.
Some other areas where committee members are considering setting aside ARPA funds include:
- An estimated $2-million dollars to replace the elevator at the Joseph G. Cannon Building (where county offices are located at 201 North Vermilion Street in Danville);
- An estimated $2-million dollars for upgrades to the heating and cooling system at the Rita B. Garman Vermilion County Courthouse….plus all new water lines in the building at an estimated cost of $1.5 million dollars, and $45,000 for new LED lighting;
- An estimated $750,000 to $1-million dollars for replacement windows at the Joseph G Cannon building, along with new entry doors at the building at 201 N. Vermilion in Danville;
- An estimated $400,000 for a new ventilation system at the Vermilion County Department of Animal Regulations building, along with new water lines and LED lighting there.
Vermilion County Supervisor of Assessments Mathew Long urged the committee to move quickly on getting the new elevator for the Joseph G Cannon Building. ‘’We’ve got to do something, and talking about it is not getting it done,’’ said Long. The elevator is currently working fine but there have been some problems in the past. Long noted 3,000 to 5,000 senior citizens will soon be heading to his third floor office to fill out forms.
