MANSFIELD — Richland County commissioners on Thursday approved spending $68,981 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for a new truck and salt spreader for its maintenance department.
But Commissioner Tony Vero made it clear he has bigger ideas for ARPA funds going forward, including additional renovations to the county administration building, adding that capital funds could be used for vehicle purchases in the future.
“ARPA (represents) generational dollars and we’d really like to use ARPA for projects that we probably may not have done or wouldn’t (do) without this money,” Vero sad.
“We certainly have a healthy capital fund. I looked the other day (and) we had $8.4 million in capital funds. It’s looking like we’re going have another pretty good year (in 2023), as well. So I expect we’ll put some more money in the capital (fund).
Land Bank office renovation may be in the offing
He said one potential ARPA project would be to renovate “L1” in the county administration building, including the space allotted to the Richland County Land Bank.
Vero said the project to renovate “L2” as new space for the Clerk of Courts office appears to be coming in under budget. That project will allow for a fourth Common Pleas courtroom, a move requested by judges.
“One of the requests we have is from the Land Bank. It’s not formal. It’s just the Land Bank’s had conversations that since we are doing renovations to the building, and there’s long-term plans, if we would look at (improving Land Bank offices.)”
Vero and Commissioner Cliff Mears are members of the Land Bank board, a quasi-public entity that operates as a 501(C)3 non-profit organization aimed at acquiring abandoned properties, reducing blight and returning the land to productive use.
“We have one of the better, pound-for-pound, Land Banks in the country, let alone the state. It’s not really the most inviting of environments down there,” Vero said.
“Let’s try to continue to save those (ARPA) dollars moving forward and let’s use the capital (fund) for what it’s intended,” Vero said.
‘We need a little bit of a facelift down there’
“It’s my intention, and I’m only one of three (commissioners), to get this building completely up to par in terms of maintenance, capital, even aesthetics. The Land Bank is of particular interest as it gets involved in more high-profile projects,” Vero said.
“We need a little bit of a facelift down there. So that’s sort of my hopes with the (ARPA) revenue loss dollars is that L1 area,” he said.
County administrator Andrew Keller said it’s not the first vehicles commissioners have purchased using ARPA funds.
“But I think part of Commissioner Vero’s emphasis is we’ve really had a renewed interest recently in making some improvements to the public areas within this building and with the spotlight on some of those additional projects,” Keller said.
