County begins allocating more than $1.62M in ARPA funds

Jan. 19—The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners, during a Jan. 18 meeting, approved expenditure documentation for American Rescue Plan Act funds totaling over $1.62 million.

The Humane Society of Cherokee County requested $50,000 for a Pet Lifeline Project, but commissioners agreed to amend that amount to $5,000 instead. District 1 Commissioner Doug Hubbard said he wasn't sure if they could spend that much on the project, for the time being.

"I make a motion to lower the amount requested from the Humane Society from $50,000 to $5,000. [We'll] see where the numbers fall when we get more of this money spent," said District 3 Commissioner Clif Hall.

A payment request from Laura Hobbs Windle/Hobbs and Associates for an ARPA expenditure of $37,516 was approved.

"We hired Hobbs and Associates, and if we're going to hire someone, we're going to hire someone local. Laura does an excellent job for us and this is just one of her payments," said Hall.

The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office request for $1 million in ARPA funds for 15 new, fully equipped trucks was approved as well. Sheriff Jason Chennault said they asked for the $1 million, and the trucks will account for just under $750,000.

Taking all the equipment associated with the 15 trucks into account, the actual number was $852,730, and commissioners had initially agreed to give CCSO the $1 million.

Cherokee County 911 Coordinator Alicia Felts' request for $104, 331 to upgrade a CAD system was granted.

"It's upgrading our CAD system that we currently have, because we've had it since 2009 and it's never been updated. It's getting to where it's not user-friendly anymore, so we need to upgrade severely," said Felts.

She said they were given a $47,000 discount because they are already using the Global Public Safety software.

"Everything already in our system will transfer to the new, so we're not having to program new stuff, and I'd like to stick with the same company we currently have," she said.

Felts said she is awaiting a quote from Muskogee Communications for new radios and consoles.

"The radios that we currently have are the original ones we can no longer buy parts for. So if a radio goes down, we're just dead in the water," said Felts.

The board gave its nod to Assessor Marsha Trammel's $481,296 request in funds to allocate among Progressive Business Systems, AF3 Technical Solutions, Bill Knight Ford, and Pictometry International Corp.

"On the Pictometry, which I share with 911 and everything, the amount is going to be a little different, and we explained that to Laura. She said that was fine as long as we stay under the $500,000 allotted to me, because they were going to give us this January flight, another January flight, and discount it $86,000," said Trammel.

In other business, the board authorized the District Attorney's Office to initiate eight condemnation proceedings to acquire right-of-way easements, utility easements, and temporary construction and driveway easements relating to a project on Mud Valley Road in District 2.

Tim Knight, representing Cherokee County's rural fire departments, said they were advised to speak to the 911 Trust Authority Board about communications upgrades using ARPA funds. Knight said the 13 departments were looking for funding to upgrade all communications systems.

"With everything going digital; we've got to do some catching up and we went to every department and said, 'What are your needs?' and each one of them came back with their individual needs, and this is what we came up with," said Knight.

Commissioners listened to Knight and other firefighters in attendance Tuesday morning, and they advised the 911 Center needed to be renovated first for their upgrades to work.

"We got to rebuild the house and then we got to rebuild the barn, and all the well house, and that's what you guys are," said Hall. "I'm 1,000 percent behind it. We got to get Alicia's upgrade done where she can communicate with all of the different departments and get everything 100 percent."

Knight agreed and said they would only be halfway there if they upgraded before the 911 Center.

Another proposal Knight brought before the board was hiring a full-time fire dispatcher for the 911 Center.

"This would be a 911 employee, [for] basically the fire departments countywide, [which made] maybe about 2,800 runs, or 2,786 last year. Right now we're being dispatched secondary by either Northeastern Health System's dispatcher or Cherokee Nation's dispatcher," said Knight.

The busier each dispatcher becomes, the more delays with calls, and Knight said they don't have a direct line of communication to 911 at this time.

Commissioners would like to look at the ARPA funds, as they couldn't give a definitive decision during Tuesday's meeting.

Claims, purchase orders, appropriations, and transfers were OK'd.

What's next

The next Board of Cherokee County Commissioners meeting is Monday, Feb. 7, at 9 a.m. at the Cherokee County Courthouse.