County Commissioners discussed the status of projects they’d allocated American Rescue Plan, or federal COVID relief, funds and whether remaining funds could be shifted among projects during a July 21 meeting.

The county received a direct allocation of $15,804,392 of ARPA funds, which were designed to help address COVID’s impact and were based partially on population.

County Commissioners used a portion of those funds toward county projects, but allocated some to other area governmental agencies, nonprofits and water and sewer districts.

County, city progressing on ARPA funded projects [2024]

“The commission felt strongly that this one-time funding should be spread throughout the county rather than retaining all of the funds for internal use as some jurisdictions chose. In addition, the U.S. Treasury allowed each jurisdiction to utilize up to $10 million of their funds within the category of ‘lost revenue replacement.’ This category has a lower threshold of federal reporting requirements and can be used for virtually any normal government purpose,” according to the county agenda report.

The amount a jurisdiction received over $10 million is more restrictive with increased reporting requirements, according to the county.

Great Falls library returning ARPA funds for delayed door project [2024]

In July 2022, commissioners voted to allocate $13.3 million of ARPA funds to various agencies throughout the county.

The county received 66 applications for the funding and provided funding for 51 of those requests, commissioners said at the time.

The funded requests included:

• eight for public health expenses, primarily recouping costs expended in response to the COVID pandemic;
• 21 for water and sewer projects, totaling $5.4 million;
• 16 for county projects, to include those at the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office and Montana Expo Park;
• 16 for community partner projects totaling $4.2 million

Erik Ingman with Water and Environmental Technologies, or WET, provided updates on the Tracy Water Association and Centerville Public Schools projects.

The Tracy Water Association was awarded $50,000 for a preliminary engineering study for a new water system.

Ingman said they were in the research and drafting phase and hoping to marry the work up with the formation of a water district.

County updates progress of ARPA funded projects [2024]

Centerville School was awarded $320,176 for a new well and water system.

That project is on standby, Ingman said, as a contract was issued to Boland Drilling, which drilled down 450 feet, about 150 feet deeper than the existing well, but the new well wasn’t yielding as much water as expected.

Ingman said the school paid another $11,000 to go deeper, but the well was only yielding about 30 gallons a minute, while they’re hoping for the current rate of 100 gallons a minute they have at the current 300-foot well.

He said they have funds to finish the well, but may need another $30,000 for a pump and line to get the water to the school.

Or they could perhaps go deeper for about $220 per foot.

County approves jail booking remodel contract change

Ingman said the project was on hold while the school determined if they had funding to go forward.

Commissioner Joe Briggs asked how the new well site was selected.

Ingman said they had limited options as the septic drain fields were close, as well as the floodplain, to the new well is close to the existing well, which has a pump and casing that’s too tight for the space, causing issues.

Briggs asked how they’d know if there’s water while punching lower and Ingman said they blow water out the hole throughout the process.

Commissioner Jim Larson said it’s a needed project and “I know this has gotta be disappointing to you guys, it is to us, thought it was going to be quick and good.”

Commissioner Eric Hinebauch said he’d like to explore going deeper.

County approves contract for Expo Park roof replacement project [2024]

Trista Besich, county finance officer said the July 21 meeting was presentation on the projects and at the next commission work session they’d review tentative proposals for commission action at the next regular meeting.

Blue Corneliusen provided an update on the Sun Prairie County Water District project.

Commissioners awarded $407,000 for new wells, to upgrade the pump house, water lines, gate valves and install water meetings.

Corneliusen said they have a contract and expect that paperwork to be completed by the end of July with construction starting in August and wrapping up by the end of the year.

He said they had to cut back substantially on the scope of the project due to high costs for the pump house, but are looking at making any many improvements as possible.

Sarah Peck provided updates on the Black Eagle Water and Sewer projects.

Commissioners approved:

• Black Eagle Water and Sewer for sewer upgrades throughout the system: $98,480.
• Black Eagle Water and Sewer for water main and compromised service line replacement: $1,383,870.

She said both are nearing completion.

County staff provided updates on internal ARPA projects.

• County IT to upgrade server system to have more remote access: $171,000. Complete.
• County IT for countywide phone upgrade to VOIP phones: $109,382. In progress.
• County IT for staff training for new server system and remote access: $30,000. Partially complete but not yet reimbursed.

Sean Higginbotham said they still had about $17,000 left of funding for staff training and expected that to be spent by the end of the year.

County accepting applications for COVID relief funds [2022]

The phone upgrade was more complicated as there’d been a transition in vendors but it was getting close.

He said that project will come in under the $109,382 that was allocated.

Les Payne, county public works director, covered the following projects:

• County IT for backup generator for county annex: $287,688.63.
• Adult Detention Center for camera upgrades in jail: $79,442.
• Cascade County Sheriff’s Office for new building for evidence storage: $1,500,000. Construction underway.
• Four Seasons Area and Exhibition Hall roof replacements: $2,032,000

Payne said that he had opened and closed bids for the annex generation, but didn’t feel the bids were competitive.

For the last bid, the county received better rates, so officials contracted at $150,684, he said.

He said he expected to close that project out around the end of September and the remaining funds would go back into the county’s building reserve fund.

The evidence building was budgeted at $1.5 million for ARPA and so far, the project had a few changes orders putting it at $1.2 million.

Payne said that project will be done by the beginning of August and barring any last minute issues, the project should come in about $135,000 under budget.

County approves $1.1 million contract for new CCSO evidence building [2024]

The Expo Park roof project was budgeted at $2.6 million, he said, with only one change order so far. The project is expected to be completed by the end of November, depending on weather, and if all goes well, the project should come in about $400,000 under budget.

The jail booking remodel project was budgeted at $1 million and the scope was only within that budget.

That included $600,000 in ARPA funds and $400,000 in reserves, he said, but there’s been some change orders and additional costs, so the project is over budget by $170,000.

Payne said he was asking commissioners to put the $400,000 back into the sheriff’s office reserves and pull the ARPA savings from other projects to complete the remodel.

Payne said that they first started the remodel on a limited budget with a small square footage but as contractors are getting into it, they’re discovering issues and trying to address them with the ARPA savings since it’s easier and cheaper to do it while the contractor is on site.

He said they could use the savings toward replacing some locks to other cells in the jail, which is a costly project.

Besich said that they’ve been notified some projects are not proceeding or those with funds left over, including Windy Acres which isn’t using its $350,000 allocation, and Stockett has about $4,300 left from their completed project.

Briggs said the Sand Coulee wastewater project had changed “drastically” and a primary funder was out, so “we have to ask ourselves if it’s appropriate to spend more on a project that’s not going to go anywhere.”

He said the county had funded 58 projects initially with ARPA funds and so far only a few hadn’t been able to proceed.

Briggs said that the end of 2024 was the cutoff to add more projects, but they could still move money to existing projects and Besich said the county attorney’s office was researching what reallocations the county can do of ARPA funds within the regulations.

Briggs said they’ve watched the APRA projects carefully and everyone had done a good job of following the rules, but “we’re running out of time to make decisions.”