Lake County Board members have discussed input gathered about how residents would like to see the county spend roughly $45 million in unallocated American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Residents who responded to an online questionnaire showed the most interest in allocating ARPA dollars toward public health programs and projects, according to assistant county administrator Matt Meyers.
Members of the Special Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery and Investment, a subcommittee that reports to the County Board’s Financial and Administrative Committee, were also presented with ARPA-related projects totaling roughly $12 million.
Lake County received a total of $135 million when ARPA funding was disbursed from the federal government.
An online questionnaire asking residents to prioritize the funding of public health, household assistance, economic business and investment and infrastructure drew 1,630 responses and 2,049 comments.
Meyers said in-person events drew nearly 30 participants. Lake County also made translators available to community members at the events, and distributed materials in Spanish and English.
“It’s really important to get out there and hear from communities, aside from just the conversations we’ve had as members,” special committee chair Paul Frank said.
Meyers said respondents ranked public health as their number one desired area to see receive ARPA dollars, and that there is a “noticeable gap” between public health and community and household assistance, which ranked second. Infrastructure and economic and business investments ranked third and fourth, respectively.
On Friday, member Angelo Kyle asked Meyers if COVID-19 seemed to be driving the public health interest. Meyers responded that mental health programs were the top desire expressed by respondents, which he said he believes helped push public health to the top.
Other items that members of the public supported at a “high frequency,” according to Meyers’ report, include gun violence prevention and public safety programs, equity, access or affordability to programs, temporary housing or housing assistance for the unhoused population with qualifiers or stipulations, programs to assist with affordable housing and programs related to clean drinking water or replacing water pipes.
Items mentioned with “medium frequency” included substance abuse programs or overdose mitigation, infrastructure programs and additional spaces for bikers, pedestrians or outdoor recreation. Programs to assist with food access, programs to assist with events in Lake County and programs related to COVID-19 or the pandemic were mentioned at “low frequency.”
Meyers said county staffers were surprised to see food access mentioned so little.
“I would take that as a success that we have had food programs available, as the committee is well aware, since the start of the pandemic, whether it was through CARES funds and now switching to ARPA funds,” he said. “So I would hope that’s the reason why it didn’t come up a lot, that we are doing a good job.”
Lake County will now consider project proposals that are directly eligible as one of the four categories, with eligible requesters including nonprofits and local units of governments that are not municipalities. Projects must take place in Lake County, and in most cases the county would reimburse the requester for its expenditures through ARPA.
“They receive their own ARPA dollars that they are actively using, but these other units of local government did not,” Meyers said.
He added that he and deputy county administrator Jim Hawkins have received, “a lot of outreach from park districts, libraries, everything else, townships that have requested an opportunity to apply for funds.”
There is a minimum of $50,000 for reimbursement programs, which Meyers said is reflective of the county’s desire for projects that will impact many people, rather than just a handful.
Lake County staff will score requests based on alignment with public engagement, risk, evidence basis, equity, performance tracking, fiscal sustainability, budget details, countywide impact, impact vs. effort, leveraged funds and readiness.
“I think the entire value of the scoring process is to save us from ourselves,” Frank said. “We don’t want to go through that list and pick and choose the favorites that we like.”
The special committee signaled to Frank that it approved of the evaluation process.
Member Mike Danforth asked if it would be possible for Lake County to allocate some portion of its remaining ARPA funds to pay for the implementation of the SAFE-T Act, which eliminates cash bail in Illinois, to replace about $3 million in lost annual bail bonds.
“Based on what I read, those ARPA funds may be available to help us offset the cost of that,” Danforth said. “We’re going to have to get that money from somewhere, there’s just no doubt about that.”
He also noted that Lake County could have to factor in a new piece of legislation that entitles veterans assistance commissions to a small percentage of a county’s annual tax levy, although it’s unclear how much that could cost the county right now.
Frank asked whether staff had looked at SAFE-T Act and veterans assistance cost increase scenarios, and Meyers said staff would need some direction from the board on what it wants to know.
Lake County would have to allocate funds to outside entities by the end of 2024, and those funds would have to be spent by the end of 2026, Meyers said.
Meyers said prices increased from original estimates based on purchase prices for some of the components in projects and in some cases, “the current state of the economy with cost increases or the availability of items.”
The biggest price leap was for a public works disc filter project, which saw an increase from $4.5 million to $6.3 million. A firefighting foam purchase estimated to cost $45,000 will now need $65,000, Meyers reported.
The county must also extend funding for or eliminate programs such as the Lake County health department’s call center, which needs $883,250, and its food distribution programs, which are estimated to need an additional $1.277 million, bringing the total price tag to about $2.23 million.
Another proposal from the health department requested $159,000 of epidemiologist support staff for 18 months in 2023 and 2024 to boost disease control efforts within the county’s Communicable Disease Program.
The special committee advanced each proposed program or project except for the personal protective equipment storage, which was forecast to cost $415,000 for one year.
“It seems like a lot of money for us to be spending for a one-year extension that would take us from July ’23 to July ’24,” Frank said.
