Lincoln County commissioners agree to allocate $3.6 million in last of federal relief funds to 11 projects

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

Lincoln County commissioners plan to allocate $3.6 million in pandemic relief funds to 11 projects ranging from two winter homeless shelters, to affordable housing to beginning plans for a new courthouse.

Commissioners on Wednesday agreed to a suggested list created last month by Kaety Jacobson.

Jacobson initially brought the issue before commissioners in late June, saying that some members of Oregon’s congressional delegation are warning local jurisdictions that still have unspent American Rescue Plan Act money to allocate funds before some in Congress ask for it back.

Jacobson told YachatsNews she did not talk to commissioners Claire Hall or Casey Miller about her ideas before broaching them June 21. Hall and Miller listened, asked a few questions, said it was a good list and agreed to talk about it again Wednesday.

County administrator Tim Johnson went through the list again Wednesday. Commissioners said little about the list other than projects seemed worthwhile and authorized Johnson to proceed on the most urgent ones first.

“It’s a good, well-thought out list,” Hall said Wednesday.

Jacobson told YachatsNews last month that the list was her attempt to jumpstart the project conversation and get them moving.

“I decided we need to make some decisions … before someone makes decisions for us,” she said.

Lincoln County received $9.2 million in federal economic recovery money and last year 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 is supposed to be allocated this year, under contract by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026. It has to be 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.

Jacobson said there was initially some talk of commissioners each getting a third of the remaining money to allocate to programs they favored, similar to a procedure used by Oregon legislators last year. But when nothing came of it, she decided to create a list to begin discussing.

“My biggest driver here is to protect the money,” she said.

Jacobson’s suggestions using the most money range from $400,000 to try to establish winter shelter programs for the homeless in Newport and Lincoln City, $1 million for the planning of a new courthouse and administration building, $1 million toward some kind of affordable housing project, and to make $498,000 available to local non-profits to fund projects that meet ARPA standards.

The one that possibly needed the most explanation was $300,000 for a spay/neuter program for dogs and cats and focused on low-income households. Jacobson said that idea came about during talks with members of the Central Coast Humane Society about the proliferation of abandoned pets following the pandemic.

A series of speakers during the commission’s public comment period Wednesday urged support for the spay/neuter program.

Big ticket items

The winter shelter program would need funding help from cities but be managed by the county from Oct. 1 through March 31. A prospectus developed by Health and Human Services’ staff said the county would need to find two facilities of 5,000 to 7,000 square feet to shelter up to 50 people and include restrooms, showers, a kitchen and office space. It estimated the “stand up” costs of two facilities to be $580,000, suggesting significant help from the seven cities in Lincoln County or from elsewhere. This is a separate and more immediate response to the homeless crisis in the county, apart from more long-term work being done by a homeless advisory board.

Jacobson is also suggesting $1 million toward “potential acquisition and construction of affordable housing projects” in the county. “This money may be used internally or could be given to one of our affordable housing partners for a housing project that they could develop and manage,” said she in her memo. Hall asked if the money could help another entity purchase 16 units of affordable housing that the regional Community Services Consortium has on the market. Jacobson said federal rules “were not real flexible” but asked county administrator Tim Johnson to see if that idea might work.

Jacobson also proposed $498,000 to be allocated to local nonprofits who might have ARPA-eligible projects that needed funding. Part of the county’s screening criteria, she said, would be a proven ability to manage and report on federal funds and have previous audits of their finances.

The county is in need of a new courthouse and administration building, so Jacobson is suggesting using up to $1 million to help plan a new building, including sewer and water infrastructure, studying space needs and safety requirements, and architectural plans.

On Wednesday, Johnson told commissioners that the south wall of the courthouse would have to be removed this summer to fix water damage from a leaking roof. That will force the closure of one courtroom, he said.

Other projects include:

• $90,000 to take out the carpets in the four circuit courtrooms and replace them with a different, easier to clean surface;
• $100,000 for a digital reservation system for county parks and internet access at each;
• $20,000 to finish putting all county clerk’s microfiche documents in digital format so they can be viewed online;
• $12,000 for four additional cameras to be placed in the clerk’s ballot counting room to allow remote viewing of the election process. Currently two observers sit or stand near the doorway;
• $100,000 to buy fixed position and portable generators to install at various county buildings and locations to help power essential operations during major outages;
• $80,000 to continue funding a contracted staff member to work with Benton and Linn counties on implementing rural internet broadband programs.