Finance Committee members of the Vermilion County Board are considering possibly using more federal ARPA funds to help with projects around the county. It was a year ago that the County decided to earmark $1.4 million dollars in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to help with projects. County Board Chairman Larry Baughn notes the county earlier received lots of requests for help….
{Audio: “There’s a bunch of them out there, and I’d love to help every one of them. They’ve made it really hard on all of us to be able to decide. But again that money only just went so far, and the committee made some great donations that way. But I think if we could play with that interest money that we’ve accrued there and help some more – that would be a great day for all of us.”}
Interest that has accumulated from the ARPA money in the County’s General Fund has grown to over $450-thousand dollars. Baughn is suggesting that at least part of those funds could go toward helping other projects. Steve Miller, chairman of the County Board Finance Committee, says he has no great objection to helping more entities around the county. But he noted no action could be taken at Monday’s committee meeting because the matter was not on the agenda.
The County earlier allocated some ARPA funds for several projects, including a water project in Potomac. Some expenses at the Vermilion County Animal Shelter were also paid earlier with ARPA money.
Vermilion County has more than $6-million dollars in federal ARPA funds, but Baughn notes that money is earmarked for other county projects…
{AUDIO: “We’ve got an elevator project we want to put out for bids here at the Joseph G. Cannon Building. A window project here at the Cannon Building, as well as a window project at the courthouse. Those are probably the big three – and then an HVAC overhaul over at the Public Health Department. So that building is in desperate need of that. Of course we did one here in the Cannon Building that just wrapped up, and that was almost a million dollar project there itself.”}
Baughn added it’s fortunate that federal ARPA funds are available to address those projects.
