Lincoln County targets 39 projects for $5.1 million in funding from American Rescue Plan; $3.7 million left to go

 

NEWPORT — Dipping into its allocation of $9.2 million in federal economic recovery money, Lincoln County commissioners have approved 39 projects totaling $5.1 million to help make it more efficient, improve customer service and upgrade technology and other equipment.

The money comes from $65 billion allocated to counties across the country as part of the $350 billion American Rescue Plan Act approved by Congress in 2021 to help communities recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The money has to be spent by the end of 2024 and used in specific areas such as public health, making up for the negative economic impact of the pandemic, services to disproportionately impacted groups, and infrastructure projects.

The recently-approved list of projects by commissioners follows $400,000 the county spent in 2021 to incentivize its employees to get vaccinated to help protect them from the Covid-19 virus. The county still has to determine how to spend the remaining $3.7 million, said administrator Tim Johnson.

Commissioners decided to not spend money to hire more employees in allowed or targeted areas because there was no certain funding to maintain those positions once the federal funding ran out.

Outside of a few major projects, Johnson said, the county’s main focus was to look at ways to work more efficiently and improve customer service.

“As a rural community, we’ve got to look at every opportunity to leverage these dollars,” Johnson said.

The biggest of those, Johnson said, is allocating $350,000 to launch a 2-3 year project to digitize all records in the planning department and the assessor’s office and put them online. That means, for example, someone looking at maps, plans or permits in the planning department won’t have to drive to Newport to look at them during weekday office hours, but be able to access them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

At least eight other projects involved information technology, equipment for hybrid meetings, upgrades to communications within the sheriff’s office, and upgrading electronic equipment for grand juries.

“I’m pleased with the work that departments did and the direction by commissioners,” Johnson said.

The largest allocation was setting aside $1 million for potential infrastructure work when the county finds a new location for its animal shelter. There is also $270,000 allocated for improvements to county parks.

The county allocated $500,000 to the Parole and Probation department to launch a post-jail life skills program called Voyager Training and $350,000 to the corrections department to remodel and expand its juvenile shelter.

The health department is getting $250,000 to remodel its Nye Street building so it can move its primary Newport clinic there.

The biggest allocation going to a program outside county government is $500,000 to help the Pacific Communities Health District with its $6 million project to remodel and expand a former adult care center it purchased in Newport and turn it into the county’s only in-patient drug and alcohol treatment center.

Health and Human Services director Jayne Romero said she requested the money for the treatment center because it is “central to the work we do and otherwise the closest residential facility to Lincoln County is in Lebanon.”

But it’s also expensive to track all the money and projects as required by the federal government, Johnson said. Some $360,000 is allocated for grant administration and auditing required by the program.

Johnson said the county plans to hire an outside auditor to track progress on grants and meet quarterly and yearly reporting requirements.

“It’s significant,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of paperwork to do. It’s not for the faint of heart.”