SN 11-20-2021

Page 10/The Sun and News, Saturday, November 20, 2021

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James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
A statewide nonprofit orga-
nization is considering a
potential pilot study of the
unique way Barry County is
collaborating with local
municipalities concerning the
county’s distribution of feder-
al stimulus funding.
The website michigan-
foundations.org shows its
Statewide Equity Fund
Strategic Support Pilot pro-
gram was launched in July to
serve as a collaborative way
for Michigan’s philanthropic
organizations to “address sys-
tem challenges laid bare by
the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Barry Community
Foundation President Bonnie
Gettys told the Yankee
Springs Township Board at its
Nov. 11 meeting that some
representatives of the Council
of Michigan Foundations had
met with the Barry
Community Foundation
recently to discuss the poten-
tial study.
The study would focus on
how the county is planning to
share its federal allocation of
nearly $12 million through
the Coronavirus State and
Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
program. That is part of the
American Rescue Plan Act
signed into law in March.
The CMF declined to com-
ment on the potential pilot
study, noting “it’s too early in
the process.”
ARPA funds have been
allocated to communities
across the country to use for
infrastructure upgrades, based
on the size of each municipal-
ity’s population. The money
is being deposited into the
bank accounts of local gov-
ernments in two installments,
one this year and the other
next year. Barry County
received its first ARPA pay-
ment of nearly $6 million in
June. The second half will
arrive sometime in 2022.
Gettys is one of the offi-
cials coordinating how the
money will be distributed to
local governmental units in
Barry County. Although
ARPA funds may be used
only to address existing infra-
structure needs, there has
been some recent discussion

in Congress about possibly

amending the law to broaden

potential uses for the stimulus

funds.

“Our county was just inter-

viewed by (the Council of

Michigan Foundations) to try

to determine if they’re going

to use us as a pilot program,

because of the way that we’ve

engaged everyone in the pro-

cess,” Gettys told the Yankee

Springs Township Board.

“And if they do that, then

they’ll do an evaluation on

how this [funding] was dis-

persed, how we potentially

could get even greater resi-

dent input on where they feel

the needs and wants are.”

Barry County Board of

Commissioners Vice

Chairwoman Vivian Connor

also spoke to the township

board. Part of the county

board district she represents is

in Yankee Springs. Connor

said the county board has set

a public meeting for Nov. 30

to discuss the 20 applications

the county has received for

first-round county ARPA

funding. The meeting will

start at 7 p.m. in the Hastings

Performing Arts Center at

Hastings High School.

“We’re going to have the

Community Foundation

come and tell us how they

scored the applications and

the process that they used, so

we can have an understand-

ing of it,” Connor said. “And

then, we’re going to look at

the applications and move

forward from there. We’re

not going to approve any

applications at that meeting,

but we’ll talk about them,

look at them and see what

their reasoning was behind it

• how they ranked them.”
  Initial approval of applica-
  tions will be done at a county
  commission Committee of
  the Whole meeting, and then
  the Board of Commissioners
  will consider the applications
  Dec. 7.
  “And we’re seeking public
  comment, because people
  want to have input on these
  and how we spend the money
  on these applications,”
  Connor said.
  How Barry County is going
  about gathering public input
  and working with local gov-

ernmental units in approach-

ing the funding distribution

may be pioneering in scope,

Gettys said. “This is the only

county government that I’m

aware of in the State of

Michigan that is sharing their

revenue from the federal gov-

ernment in this manner.

“There is no other county

government that has said we

want to share, and make sure

that all of our communities

are lifted up. I applaud Vivian

and her board for really look-

ing at the way to lift all boats.”

Robert Geyer, a member of

the Barry Community

Foundation ARPA advisory

committee, told the township

board he agrees about the

uniqueness of the county’s

collaborative approach to dis-

bursement of the pandemic

funding.

“I think that the [county]

commissioners are the only

ones that actually did this

committee to actually do the

research on this,” he said. “It

takes a lot of work. There was

$15 million worth of propos-

als for the first round. I think

that the commissioners are

now to the stage ... that they

want us to meet with them, so

they know exactly what the

proposals were, what we

looked at, and how we graded

them.”

Geyer said each person on

the ARPA committee used a

scoring sheet to evaluate the

various proposals from the

townships and other munici-

palities in Barry County.

Geyer said he expects a “lot

of contentiousness” among

local government leaders at

the upcoming county meet-

ings.

One problem that occurred

in the process, though, is that

only three of the county’s 16

townships submitted applica-

tions to receive county ARPA

money. And a Yankee Springs

Township Board member said

the township was not even

aware until recently that the

county had been taking appli-

cations.

“That’s what I don’t under-

stand,” Gettys replied. “I

don’t know if the emails went

to spam. I don’t know if you

got the letter, and you didn’t

open it because it was from

the Community Foundation

or the chamber [of com-

merce]. I don’t know what

occurred between what we

did and where we got today.

All I can say is, we can draw

a line in the sand today and

move forward.”

Gettys said emails were

sent last spring to all munici-

palities in Barry County,

along with letters saying the

Community Foundation was

seeking pitches from local

governments on how much

money they needed and why.

The foundation and the coun-

ty board asked the govern-

ment leaders to base their

grant requests on long-term

investments or critical needs

in their communities.

Electronic copies of each

municipality’s formal propos-

al had to be submitted to the

county by Sept. 17 for first-

round funding.

“After we sent out the

information, the county

board actually looked at the

[requests for proposals] that

we put together,” Gettys told

the township board. “We are

just finishing the first round.

We made recommendations

to the county board based on

the applications that we

received. There will be

another round that will be

available, so you haven’t

been missed. And we certain-

ly want to make sure that you

are able to leverage dollars

from the county, as well as

money that you currently

have. That was part of the

process that we looked at

when we were reviewing

applications. Points went a

little bit higher if municipali-

ties were willing to put dol-

lars in, as well.”

Meanwhile, the Yankee

Springs Township Board

voted 5-0 to authorize town-

ship supervisor Rob Heethuis

and Trustee Larry Knowles

to work with engineers in

discussing potential water-

and sewer-system projects in

which the township could

apply for ARPA funding. The

township board talked about

the possibility of extending

municipal water lines to the

Yankee Springs Meadows

mobile home park, at 1330

N. Patterson Road. The

Michigan Department of

Environment, Great Lakes

and Energy recently discov-

ered two public water wells

there with high levels of

arsenic and nitrate.

“When Yankee Springs

Meadows came to us, we

couldn’t expand our water

system,” Heethuis said. “We

didn’t have the capability,

even with the problems they

were having and being a will-

ing partner to put money into

the project. We couldn’t do it,

because our water system was

topped out.”

He and Knowles will look

into the feasibility of adding

another well to double the

township’s water-storage

capacity, and how to address

the contamination problem.

So, representatives from

EGLE, the county health

department, and engineers

may be consulted to learn the

costs of such a project.

“When you talk about

expanding the water system,

you’re talking about expand-

ing the capability and capaci-

ty, not necessarily using the

money to put pipes in the

ground going places. If we

spent a chunk of money on

arsenic [removal] and the

well, that would make the

cost to Yankee Springs

Meadows or somebody else

less to tie in. They would dou-

ble our usage,” township

Clerk Mike Cunningham

said.

“There’s a lot in play,”

Knowles said. “They have to

build an arsenic-removal

facility up there, and so they

have costs they’re going to

have to do, regardless. So, if

we sent our water up there,

they wouldn’t have to do

that. So, that would be money

they could spend [else-

where].”

In addition to considering

applying for ARPA funds to

address those issues, Gettys

suggested the township con-

tact the U.S. Department of

Agriculture about grants

available for rural communi-

ties to improve their water

quality and infrastructure.

The Yankee Springs Township Board discusses potential water and sewer

projects that could by funded through the American Rescue Plan Act. (Photo by

James Gemmell)

Philanthropic organization eying Barry County for potential study