Lauderdale County supervisors are working quickly to decide how best to spend approximately $212,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money before it is returned to the federal government. The federal legislation, passed in 2021, set a deadline of Dec. 31 of this year to encumber the funds or lose them.
In a work session Thursday, County Administrator Chris Lafferty said the county currently has $421,297 in ARPA funding unencumbered in the general fund and another $689,707 unencumbered in restricted funds. General fund money can be spent on most purchases, while restricted funds are earmarked for water, sewer and other work and cannot be used for other things.
“Regardless of what column you’re dealing with, it’s got to be obligated by December 31 of this year,” he said.
Working with the county’s financial team, Lafferty said a plan was drawn up to encumber some of the available funding with projects and purchases the Board of Supervisors has wanted to do.
Of the restricted funds, Lafferty said his plan is to earmark $150,000 to repair the floor of the detention center, $461,666 for HVAC work at the Lauderdale County Animal Control building, $60,000 for work at the juvenile justice center and $10,000 for a septic tank at the community ball fields on Van Zyverden Road.
With those funds allocated, Lafferty said the county will have $8,081.09 left in restricted ARPA funds.
“My recommendation is to leave that to cover any additional change order that’s going to come in,” he said.
On the general fund side, the county can earmark $21,067 for the road department, $50,000 for a vehicle for the coroner’s office and $138,000 for lighting at the community ball fields on Van Zyverden Road, Lafferty said. That will leave a total of $212,230.61 of unencumbered ARPA funds that will need to be allocated before the Dec. 31 deadline.
Supervisor Kyle Rutledge, who serves as board president, said the board will need to move quickly to decide on a project, put together a bid package, advertise the work and award a contract all by the end of the year.
Supervisor J.J. Anders agreed with Rutledge adding that the board will need to stay focused on meeting the Dec. 31 deadline.
“We don’t need to drop the ball on this,” he said.
Courthouse Bond
As it looks to expend its remaining ARPA dollars, Lafferty said the Board of Supervisors also has a decision to make about unused funds from the bond issued to pay for construction of the new Lauderdale County Government Center. The county issued a total of $50 million in bonds in 2020 to cover the project.
Of the borrowed $50 million, roughly $3 million remain unencumbered, with about $2 million left from the original amount and another $1 million in accrued interest from the money.
With the remaining funds, Lafferty said his plan is to address the HVAC systems in the Lauderdale County Detention Center, fix Sophia Lane, which has been a topic of conversation among supervisors for several months, and set aside $400,000 to help finance a new paving machine for the road department.
The detention center HVAC, he said, will have to be addressed at some point, and it is up to the Board of Supervisors to address it now or wait and hope a better opportunity presents itself.
“We know 100% that we are going to have to replace those at some time,” he said. “We can either be proactive and get them all done now or scramble at the last minute and probably pay a lot more.”
After subtracting the estimated costs for all three projects from the remaining bond funds, Lafferty said the county will be left with $387,902 to spend on the remaining punch list items still ongoing at the courthouse.
