BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISISON UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT

ST. JOSEPH – Last week’s Berrien County Board of Commissioners meeting touched on several topics, ranging from the future of county facilities to rural broadband expansion and plans for spending $30 million worth of American Rescue Plan Act funds.

County Administrator Brian Dissette stressed the importance of making a decision quickly in terms of how to spend the $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding the county is getting. Projects have to in place and contracts signed by the end of 2024. “It’s a ticking time clock, we have until the end of 2024 to spend down the funds,” he said.

The county board has informally agreeing to set aside $6 million or more to help local municipalities fund broadband projects and will formally do so in coming weeks. Two workshops have been scheduled for March 17 at 12:30 p.m. and March 31 at 9 a.m. in the County Administration Building to help local government leaders fill out their applications.

Last week, Commissioners Teri Freehling and Ezra Scott called on fellow commissioners to make a formal commitment to set aside a portion of the ARPA funds for broadband. Scott noted that there are already a few “shovel ready” projects being proposed and “we need to have an idea of the money we’re spending.”

Dissette spoke briefly about the process for reviewing the broadband ARPA applications submitted. He said he envisions the BC Bit group to review applications with the county’s consultant, the Merit Network, to see if they are viable and can be completed. The applications would then go to the full board for approval.

Commissioners have been looking at how to divide the ARPA funds since last summer and enlisted the help of consultant Jim Hettinger to develop a county strategic plan and the Abonmarche engineering firm to assess the condition of county facilities. Commissioners have talked about also leaving some of the $30 million for road, trail and other projects.

Commissioners first heard from Abonmarche representatives about county facilities in mid-February. That presentation included analyses of the county jail, the two county courthouses, the administration building and road department facilities. They learned the status of those buildings, what work needs to be done and the costs of repairing versus replacing.

Last week’s presentation centered on other county owned facilities such as those housing animal control, legal aid, narcotics, health department, MSU Extension, Berrien Bus and county parks including the History Center at Courthouse Square in Berrien Springs and Madeline Bertrand County Park south of Niles.

Tony McGhee of Abonmarche said the overall county facilities capital spending needs totals $63.2 million over the next 15 years. Of that amount, $41.4 million is for public safety and courts alone.

The full Abonmarche report is available on the county’s website at https://www.berriencounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/15554/03-10-22-Berrien-County-Presentation-Compressed.

Dissette said the current plan calls for the county board to allocate $15.8 million of the $30 million on capital improvement projects. “I’m asking the board to give staff a list of $15 million worth of projects,” he said. “That will allow us to do major maintenance items and still leave ARPA money for other projects.”

“Spend the next week to beat this list up,” he added. “If you can vote next week, it will allow us to get moving and still leave money for other aspirational projects … I know this is tough talk, but we need to light the fire and commit to projects to get them designed and have contracts in hand.”

The smaller $15.8 million list includes $4 million to repairs to the St. Joseph Courthouse, $5.5 million for work at the Berrien County Jail, $900,000 for repairs at the County Administration Building in St. Joseph, $2 million for repairs at the South County Building in Niles, and $100,000 for the Legal Aid building in St. Joseph.

Also on the list is $1.3 million for repairs to the multi-purpose county building at 2100 Empire in Benton Harbor, $250,000 for the Tax Equalization building at 100 Church Street in St. Joseph, $1.1 million for the Berrien County Health Department building in Benton Harbor, $500,000 for the Animal Control building in Benton Township.and $150,000 for the MSU Extension building outside of Benton Harbor.

If county commissioners agree this week, space and needs assessment work will start and continue for 10 weeks. In addition, other work will start such as getting a real estate appraisal of the land where the courthouse and jail currently sit and starting work on the layout of a possible new Napier Avenue campus to house county facilities.

Dissette and commissioners spent a good part of last week’s meeting talking about the longterm future of county buildings and specifically about the future of the county jail and the courthouse in St. Joseph where they are currently located.

County Board Chairman McKinley Elliott of Buchanan noted that the county has made significant investments in both the jail and the courthouse in St. Joseph over the last two decades. “We bought an extra 25 years of useful life for those buildings,” he said. “The cost of a new jail and courthouse could soak up the $30 million just like that.”

He suggested fixing up the courthouse and jail to keep them operating now but to start looking longterm to building a new county campus. Funding for such a large scale project would have to come from other sources including bonds and borrowing money longterm.

Possible locations for a new county campus include land the county owns on Napier Avenue in Benton Township or land in Berrien Springs which would be a central location for everyone in the county.

County Commissioner Michael Majerek from Niles said he’d like to see the county look to the future. “I can’t see us being in the same jail and courthouse in 25 years,” he said. “We need to look at what we can do now, where we want to be in 25 years and what we want to do with the ARPA funds.”

Others were more skeptical about taking on a project with such a large price tag. Scott said he was of the mind that “if we don’t have the money, we can’t afford it and we shouldn’t do it.”