County board to begin choosing ARPA proposals
Dec. 16—TRAVERSE CITY — Each Grand Traverse County commissioner will make a list of the top 20 or so proposals they want to see funded with $18.1 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
County employees will compile each commissioner's choices to see where they may agree or disagree. They'll be discussed at a special meeting at 10:30 a.m. Mon., Dec. 19.
The regular meeting will take place at 8 a.m. Wed., Dec. 21, where board members hope to vote to approve a final list of projects. Commissioner Ron Clous, who did not run for reelection, requested the special meeting in order to have the list in place by the end of the year, as a new board will be seated in January. The new board will have nine commissioners and five new faces.
Commissioners have the final say in what proposals make the cut and whether they'll be fully or partially funded.
Commissioner Darryl V. Nelson made the suggestion to have each commissioner make a list to begin narrowing them down, stressing that all deliberations among commissioners regarding the projects must take place at a public meeting, according to the Michigan Open Meetings Act.
"Unfortunately, we need to cull this list, so we can start to manage where we are going with this," Nelson said. "We need to start moving the ball forward on this."
Commissioner Penny Morris said board members are likely more familiar with projects in their own districts.
"We as commissioners in our own district know more than what (the proposal) is on paper," Morris said. "I think that's a huge opportunity to discuss."
About 40 people spoke during public comment at Wednesday's four-hour-long study session, many in support of applications from organizations that support treatment for mental health disorders and substance use disorder.
Rick Coates is the executive director of the local National Alliance on Mental Illness and suffers from mental illness. NAMI fills in the gaps in services, he said, finding help for a person when their needs are not met by places like Munson Medical Center or Northern Lakes Community Mental Health.
Coates said mental illness may not be profitable, but it is a huge expense on communities.
Many who can't get services " ... go to Dr. Jack Daniels, which is why we need Addiction Treatment Services, or I know they go see Dr. Fentanyl, I know people who go and see Dr. Heroin ... or yesterday my friend's son went to see Dr. Smith and Wesson.
"That's why NAMI is in this community," Coates said. NAMI asked for $700,000 for new and expanded programming.
Commissioner-elect T.J. Andrews said about 20 percent of the resources should be reserved for childcare, especially since a tier one project that would have expanded childcare through creation of the Northwest Michigan Early Childhood Center for Excellence was withdrawn.
All projects were scored and placed into one of three tiers based on scores of up to 50 points.
"We had a childcare crisis before the pandemic, it got much worse in the pandemic and since the pandemic we have the longest wait list in Michigan," Andrews said.
Whether proposals should be fully or partly funded depends on the project, said commission Chair Rob Hentschel. Many of the projects can use ARPA dollars to leverage other funding, including grants that may need a local match. Others may be OK with not being fully funded and others would not be able to do projects without the full funding.
Last week the proposals were made public for the first time, as well as how they were scored by Public Sector Consulting, which was hired to lead the county through the process of identifying those that fit guidelines set up by the Treasury Department and by the committee.
Federal criteria stated that projects should be COVID-related, while local criteria set up by the ARPA committee said that projects should address known gaps in the community, benefit the most citizens possible while targeting underserved populations and have long-lasting impact.
The committee, now disbanded, recommended 17 projects totaling more than $22 million to the board. The 108 proposals, plus one that was missed, total about $80 million in funding requests.
The missed proposal is from Generations Ahead, a nonprofit that serves teen parents and wants to expand services as well as reach more young parents. It has since been scored and ranked, landing in tier one.
County Administrator Nate Alger said not all of the chosen projects will be done and funding will continue through 2023 and 2024.
"Inside softball tells me we're not going to spend $22 million," Alger said. "Some of the projects likely are not going to be sustainable, something is going to happen with a piece of their application that's going to cause it to stumble ... So pick a number bigger than 17 projects, because 17 only gave us $22 million. We need a bigger swath."
