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Halifax County commissioners Monday opted to go with a standard allowance for use of its share of American Rescue Plan Act funding which would allow the county to supplant its general fund which essentially frees up that fund for use on various projects or other priorities.

The county has already received $4,856,928 of its $9,713,658 allocation. The remaining $4,856,730 is expected to be received in May.

The county has until April 4 to approve a grant project ordinance for use of the funds with a first report due to the United States Treasury Department by April 30.

Funds must be used for costs incurred on or after March 3 and further funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024 and expended by December 31, 2026.

One of the hitches in using the money, Interim County Manager Dia Denton said, is while the standard allowance allows the supplanting of general fund dollars, it does not include funding for broadband.

In fact, in a slideshow administrative staff presented to the board, the information says counties are still limited to spend property tax revenues on broadband without voter approval and the bulk of the county’s general funds are generated by property tax revenues.

Denton did point out in the slideshow that there are funds dedicated to broadband in the state’s ARPA allocation.

The broadband options available to the county include a GREAT grant, which is administered through the state’s Department of Information Technology in partnership with an internet service provider.

The second broadband option is through the Completing Access to Broadband grant program in which counties partner with the state DIT to develop requests for proposals.

“We’re not giving up on broadband,” County Attorney Glynn Rollins said. “We’ve still got some conversations going about how we might throw some ARPA money into broadband. I know (the state Department of Information Technology) is trying to talk with the treasury about clarifying some rules. But the good news is for everything else we’ve got tons of authority and flexibility to use this money for the things we’ve needed for a while.”

Board Chair Vernon Bryant said politics have created a quagmire when it comes to broadband. “This is the thing that we need as a rural county and we’re handicapped.”

Rollins said the county commissioners association and others have “really pushed the importance of making property tax dollars available for broadband agreements and it did not happen.”

County staff also presented to the board a list of potential uses for the funding which currently total $19,452,209. The potential uses can be viewed in the accompanying photo gallery.

Denton said the needs were gathered from department head meetings, county-wide meetings and needs staff has been aware for a number of years. “Some of these are capital requests we have recommended not funding over the years and the bigger piece is for the water system.”

Denton said, “Our water system is basically built out county-wide but it is aging. We’re to the point there’s some pieces of it that need to be replaced or rehabbed.”

Commissioner Patrick Qualls noted there was no inclusion of school funding or county jail funding in the list of potential uses and asked whether the water system be self-sufficient. “Shouldn’t we be deriving enough revenue from the water to do this rehabilitation?”

Rollins said, “I doubt we’ve ever used general fund money to support the water system.”

Bryant said, “I’m just embarrassed as a commissioner that we still don’t have water in parts of Halifax County and also broadband.”

Denton said when discussions came up about the amount of money the county was going to get, “We knew that we had some needs. As far as water and sewer infrastructure goes, that’s probably a separate conversation with public utilities, but over time you’re right for it to be an enterprise it would have to be self-sustaining. These projects are bigger ticket items but inevitably when you do any sort of item like this you have to come up with the funding within the enterprise to pay for it which would likely mean a rate increase.”

Denton said the money for water improvements is likely a one-time fee. “It may never happen again in any of our lives or careers. It’s the opportunity to make a big impact. The thinking behind water and sewer was that it could impact the entire county.”

Qualls asked, “Are we mandated to have water county-wide? Are we required to provide adequate (schools) for students county-wide?. I’ve been a long advocate that the county needs to focus on what we’re mandated to do and do it well.”

Commissioner Carolyn Johnson said in a recent meeting she attended parents asked her questions on how the COVID relief funds were going to be spent. “They had some really good ideas on how we can improve our county with the money we’re receiving. I think that ultimately the decisions would probably be ours but I think we need some input from some other people besides just us if we’re going to be transparent.”

The board did not reach a consensus on how to involve the public in the discussions.

Commissioner Rives Manning asked about the one-time bonus included in the list of potential uses for employees. “We’re already starting in many of our salaries $10,000 to $15,000 lower than comparable salaries in adjoining counties.”

Of the $2,000 bonus, he said, “We’re going to lose a bunch of lower paid employees. That’s a slap in the face.”

Denton said, however, “The intent of that was to be over and above any other salary increases that would be included in the budget for next year.”