County Commissioners, Council Select Scenario For HELP Funding
County Commissioners, Council Select Scenario For HELP Funding
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
County Commissioners, Council Select Scenario For HELP FundingIn a joint meeting Tuesday between the Kosciusko County Commissioners and Council, they unanimously selected “scenario 4” for the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP) funding.
In scenario 4, each of the communities of Mentone, Milford and Pierceton will receive Community Development Block Grant CARES Act (CDBG-CV) funds to match the minimum 30% American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) investment required plus a split of 100% ($1 million) of the remaining CDBG-CV funds. The county would not directly receive CDBG-CV funds.
Kosciusko County was one of three communities selected in 2021 by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) to participate in the first round of the HELP. HELP assists and equips rural communities with developing strategic investment plans, resulting in a legacy project for each community. The three communities agreed to participate with the county in the program.
“We’re talking about some CDBG funds that were awarded the county through the process of the HELP to Kosciusko County,” Commissioner Cary Groninger said in opening the joint meeting Tuesday. “... We’ve been awarded $1 million of CDBG funds through OCRA, through the HELP, and the task for today is just deciding on how those CDBG funds will be allocated.”
To be part of the HELP, the communities of Mentone, Milford and Pierceton had to commit 30% of their ARPA dollars for the projects that were identified through the HELP, he said. For Mentone, the 30% was $65,564; Milford, $106,000; and Pierceton committed $69,154. Every community in the county was offered the opportunity to participate in HELP, but only those three communities committed.
Groninger said, “Now it’s a matter of, what’s been communicated to these communities, as a minimum, is they got a dollar-for-dollar match for the ARPA funds that were committed as part of the HELP.”
From the very beginning when he looked at the HELP, he said, “This wasn’t necessarily a program that I was looking to try and get necessarily more dollars for the county, but how could we really help the small communities of our county and really help them thrive and really be more robust throughout the county.”
He said they weren’t going to be selecting specific projects Tuesday for the funding, as that will be done at the local level; all they were going to be talking about was the $1 million CDBG funds that were awarded and how would the county like to see those dispersed among the three communities and, if the county wants to partake some of those dollars, how much would the county want to keep for its projects.
A couple things he wanted everyone to keep in mind were that the CDBG funds are federal funds so strings are attached to the dollars such as how the projects are done, the paperwork and what projects even qualify for the funding. Currently, Groninger said, the CDBG funds have to be used on low- to moderate-income areas. Mentone is just off by 0.2 of a percent. Milford has already done an income study and they already qualify, while Pierceton is within the margin of error, which is 14%. Groninger said, as a whole, the county would not qualify for CDBG funds, but could qualify for some funding if the county narrowed a project down to a specific area like the Chenworth Bridge Trail that is next to two large trailer parks. An income study would be required in that area to make sure it qualifies, Groninger explained.
Community Coordinator Amy Roe told the council and commissioners, “Today, the goal is to determine the funding scenario that you feel is most appropriate for the communities and the county so that we can then move to the next stage.”
Once the county determines how much of the CDBG funds each of the communities should receive, based on a percentage of their ARPA funds that they put into the project, that will give the county the ability then to meet with each community and say, “This is how much money you have so these are the projects that you would be eligible to do,” Roe said. The town boards would then choose which project(s) to do.
“That becomes very important for Pierceton and Mentone because that will have to put an income survey request in based on the project that is chosen,” she said. “And once that’s done, and OCRA actually determines that they are eligible to do the income survey, he will move forward with that, at no charge to anybody. And that probably will be between June and July.”
After July, Roe said the hope is that they will have the full understanding of who and what projects are completely eligible. Around early August, the county would then have discussions related to the ARPA funds because there are $1.2 million in ARPA funds that have to be spent on a project in the Strategic Investment Plan (SIP).
“So by August, we should have the full understanding of the funding, if everybody is fundable, and then you would be able to have the full conversation related to what actual projects can be completed for each of the communities and the county with the two funding sources that we have available at our fingertips. At that point, MACOG (Michiana Area Council of Governments) would come and they would present an MOU (memorandum of understanding) for the projects for grant management,” Roe said.
The best guess, she said, is that by the end of August into November, they would obtain all the information needed to put the applications in. “It’s a non-competitive application for the CDBG funds, but applications still have to be submitted for each of the projects that we’re going to be spending money on, and we hope to get those in by the end of the year because the date for the submission for the construction projects is January 1 of 2024,” she said.
Zach Dripps, director of community development at MACOG, presented each of the four different scenarios.
In scenario 1, each community would receive CDBG-CV funds to match the minimum 30% ARPA investment required, with the remaining CDBG-CV funds ($759,281) allocated to the county. In scenario 2, each community would receive CDBG-CV funds to match the minimum 30% ARPA investment required plus a split of 25% of the remaining CDBG-CV funds, with the remaining funds ($569,461) allocated to the county. In scenario 3, each community would receive CDBG-CV funds to match the minimum 30% ARPA investment required plus a split of 50% of the remaining CDBG-CV funds. The remaining funds ($379,641) would be allocated to the county.
He then presented scenario 4, with the county not directly receiving any CDBG-CV funds. Of the CDBG-CV funds, Mentone would receive $272,369; Milford, $440,349; and Pierceton, $287,282.
Dripps then talked about what each scenario preliminarily gets the county and the communities, if the projects are eligible.
In scenario 4, for Mentone, Mentzer Park enhancement would be 63% funded and the downtown master plan would be 100% funded. Milford would have its water meter replacement and downtown master plan both 100% funded. Pierceton’s community building would be 28% funded, and its water utility study 100% funded. No county project would be funded.
Dripps then talked about a fifth scenario, which he described as a reallocation of the fourth scenario. In the scenario, if a town receives more money than it needs for its projects, than the extra funds are reallocated to the other towns. That would potentially allow Mentone’s Mentzer Park Pavilion and Path to be 70% funded and downtown master plan 100% funded; Milford’s water meter replacement to be 72% funded and downtown master plan 100%; and Pierceton’s community building to be 42% funded and water utility study 100% funded.
“That’s really a high-level review of what is possible with each of those scenarios, kind of how that breaks down,” Dripps said.
Roe said for each of the communities, when the project list was completed and presented to the town boards, the town boards tiered the projects from what they were most interested in to the bottom. For Mentone, their top project is Mentzer Park and master plan is second; Milford, water meter replacement was first and master plan second; and for Pierceton, the community building was their first with the utility study being second.
“For a point of reference, the $1.2 million, there are county projects that are eligible that actually could potentially be around that amount, so the county does have money that is earmarked specifically for county projects because of the ARPA match that was done,” she said.
Groninger explained that the projects that could be funded either with the CDBG or ARPA funds had to be listed in the SIPs that were created and sent to OCRA. Those projects for the county that are in the SIP include the Chenworth Trail project, the master trail and blueway plan and one broadband project. Of those three projects, he said they only think the trail project is the only one that meets CDBG requirements. Roe said that was because of the area of service.
Commissioner Brad Jackson said the county doesn’t want to “overgive” money the towns can’t use, so if they decided to give 100% of the CDBG funds to the communities, if a community can’t use all of its funds, then they would want to reallocate the rest to the other towns. He said the whole purpose of participating in HELP was to support the communities, so he personally supported scenario four or a hybrid with five.
Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell agreed with Jackson and said scenario four made more sense, with scenario five coming into play to redistribute whatever funds a community couldn’t use. Councilwoman Kimberly Cates also agreed.
Mitchell made a motion for the county council to approve scenario four, with Cates providing the second. It was approved 7-0 by the council. Groninger made a motion for the commissioners to approve scenario four, Commissioner Bob Conley seconded it and it was approved 3-0.
Groninger thanked everybody for their time and said the whole process has been a big effort by Roe and MACOG to get the county to this point.
“I really do think these are going to be things that are going to be some projects that we can be proud of in our communities around the county. Kind of rising tide raises all boats. My hope is these small communities add value to our community, it’s not just Warsaw and not just Winona Lake,” Groninger said, adding that he hopes the small communities will see the same prosperity.
