Commissioners approve first steps for stormwater grant
The Brown County Commissioners approved an agreement for grant services and another agreement to do a preliminary engineering report for the Helmsburg stormwater grant project.
The commissioners unanimously approved entering into an agreement with Kenna Consulting and Management Group Inc. for services related to securing a grant from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs to address the stormwater issue in Helmsburg.
They also unanimously approved an agreement with Lochmueller Group for $8,000 so that they can perform a preliminary engineering report (PER) on the Helmsburg stormwater system, which is a requirement for the grant.
Helmsburg Community Development Corporation representative Adrian O’Shea, Donna Anderson with Kenna Consulting, and Kyle Myers with Lochmueller Group attended the Jan. 15 commissioners meeting.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said that the $8,000 could come from the county’s redevelopment commission, since that group receives $30,000 each year from the commissioners.
She asked commissioner Jerry Pittman to take that proposal to the RDC when they meet next.
The grant money would ultimately fund phase two of the stormwater project in Helmsburg. The first phase was completed more than 10 years ago.
The proposal is due to OCRA in April with the full application due in May, Anderson said.
The grant would be for $600,000 and the minimum match would be $67,000, she said. But the price could change after the stormwater study is completed. Anderson said they would come back before the commissioners with final dollar amounts.
If the grant is received and match money is needed, Biddle said that money could come from the money the county received from the sale of the old For Bare Feet sock factory in Helmsburg.
“I don’t see any issue putting that money back into Helmsburg,” Pittman said.
Funding the 10-percent match would require a resolution from the commissioners, Anderson said. The money used to pay for the PER would also be counted toward that match, she added.
The grant would ultimately come through the commissioners since the Helmsburg CDC is not an established municipal not-for-profit, Biddle said.
O’Shea said that one reason OCRA may not fund projects with grants is due to a lack of community support, but that is not the case in Helmsburg.
“When we formed the CDC about a year and a half ago, this was the absolute No. 1 thing we wanted to get fixed. We do have a lot of community support for this particular project,” he said.
Biddle told O’Shea that she would help him get letters of support from other county groups, like the commissioners and the county council.
Centerstone makes annual report to commissioners
In 2019, mental health service provider Centerstone reported helping more than 450 Brown County residents.
Centerstone shared its annual report for 2019 with the Brown County Commissioners. That’s required since Centerstone is designated as the county’s mental health agency, said commissioner Diana Biddle. Biddle shared some of the findings from the report during the Jan. 8 meeting.
Centerstone receives about $90,000 a year for being the county’s mental health agency. “For that, they do provide reduced-fee services for people in the county who don’t have insurance,” Biddle said.
In 2019, Centerstone served 455 total patients from Brown County. The number of patients receiving addiction treatment was 136.
The top five addictions treated were for alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, meth and heroin.
Heroin made up less than 25 percent of the addictions treated, Biddle said.
A few years ago, the Brown County Council voted to remove funding Centerstone from the county’s budget even though it was statutorily required that the mental health agency be funded. This resulted in the county having to pay Centerstone an extra $30,000 each year to make up for that lack of funding.
Biddle said this would be the last year for that additional funding.
Highway department to buy new mower
Brown County Commissioners approved the purchase of a new long-arm mower and tool carrier at the Jan. 15 meeting.
Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner told the commissioners Jan. 8 that his department was looking into buying the mower. It will cost $163,000 and would be paid for using money Magner has in his budget already to replace a tractor mower.
“Instead of buying a farm tractor base and put a long-arm mower on it, which we have had issues with, this is a dedicated machine that is built just for that purpose,” he said.
He said this machine would also allow for workers to use a side-arm and long-arm mower at the same time.
“With our tractor, you had one choice or the other. Either you had the long-arm or the side mower, but you can’t use both on the same tractor,” he said of the current mowing tractor.
Magner said the purchase price would also will include free updates to the machines as they are made available by the company.
“It looks like a very, very good machine. … It won’t cost you any more than the farm tractor option,” he said.
Magner said his department had been wanting to replace their current mowing tractors. “We need to be able to have the flexibility to mow with both options. You don’t have to switch tractors,” he said.
At the meeting last week, Magner said he looked at three other tractor and two other mower options. “The price is right in the middle of road between the different tractor options. They ranged anywhere from $140,000 to $188,000,” he said.
The department will receive this mower in about 120 days from when it’s ordered.
“I think this is a good move. This is a specialized piece of equipment. It’s not a farm tractor we’re hanging something on. We’ve had a lot of liability problems in the past,” commissioners President Jerry Pittman said.
Magner said it will be easier to get parts for this machine, too. “It should be very beneficial in the long run and keep costs down,” he said.
New salt dome coming to highway department?
The Brown County Highway Department is in the process of getting a new dome to protect $156,000 worth of road salt.
The salt dome was built in 1999 when the original highway department garage complex was built, said Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner.
“It still has the original shingles, which have gotten brittle and are starting to actually fall off,” he told the Brown County Commissioners at their Jan. 15 meeting.
The new dome would cost $87,420. It would be a galvanized steel frame with a fabric top.
“It may sound like a lot of money, but when I ran the numbers a little bit ago, and at the current price of salt, and we fill the building up with salt, we have $156,000 worth of salt sitting inside the building,” Magner said.
“If we don’t protect it and it gets hit by rain, it melts and washes away. It’ll be a good investment. The fabric is guaranteed for 15 years, which is pretty close to what a shingle roof would be.”
The price also includes a hatch that would allow for the salt to be unloaded using a conveyor system.
The new salt dome would be funded partially by the highway department’s budget and the county’s capital improvement loan. In that loan, $185,000 was set aside for highway garage expenses.
Magner told the commissioners he would have the building plans, specs and contract for them to approve at the next meeting.
