T-R PHOTO BY TREVOR BABCOCK Marshall County Buildings and Grounds Director Lucas Baedke broke down the liquidated damages included in a new contract between the county and First Onsite during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The company is the general contractor for the courthouse renovation project, which has experienced numerous setbacks and delays.

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors approved how $887,366 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) CARES money should be spent, based on recommendations from the committee. That amount comes from the $3.8 million the county has already received from ARPA.

Supervisor Dave Thompson said the supervisors already approved spending $1.5 million for heating and air conditioning for the sheriff’s office, as well as $1.1 million for the control board.

“And now we’re going to add another $887,000?” he asked. “This is getting close.”

The approved expenditures were:

• $3,374.24 for county department COVID sick time from March 3 to May 31.

• $9,500 for the Annex

• $5,750 for the Conservation Department

• $23,750 for the Marshall County Courthouse

• $8,500 for the election center

• $4,750 for the county engineer’s office

• $28,500 for the sheriff’s office

• $80,750 for technology items for conference rooms to allow for virtual meetings

• $3,893.22 for Emergency Management Director Kim Elder and Marshall County Communications Commission Director Rhonda Braudis to attend the 911/EMA National Homeland Security Conference

• $76,773.94 for rest room upgrades for the sheriff’s office

• $29,574.63 for radios for the Green Mountain Fire Department.

There was concern some of the projects proposed to receive money might not be allowed under the federal regulations.

Supervisor Steve Salasek said the county could have a plan put together for the full $7.8 million the county will receive. Benson agreed and said at a recent conference, a full seven hours was devoted to ARPA funding discussion.

Thompson pointed out one proposal for ARPA funding was Green Mountain Fire Department radios. Benson said the department is asking for 50 percent of the total amount.

“Green Mountain is a little bit different than all of our other cities because they are not an incorporated city,” she said. “So they could not apply for the ARPA funds.

Supervisor Bill Patten asked how many radios Green Mountain was going to purchase at a cost of $59,000. Pat Cornwell with the department told him the plan is to buy 19 pagers, six mobile radios for the trucks and 14 portable radios — four for first responders and 10 for firefighters. All are up-to-date on technology and will be compatible with the upgraded emergency communications system.

“This makes more sense to me now,” Patten said. “I thought that buys a lot of radios.”

Thompson said his concern is the second the “Pandora’s box” is opened, every other fire department will ask for the same thing. He wanted to stress the only reason the ARPA funding is being considered for Green Mountain is because it is an unincorporated town.

“This is not going to be the county paying for the radios,” Thompson said.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.