Kosciusko County Council on Nov. 14 approved a series of ARPA budget reductions for completed projects and authorized new ARPA appropriations for several county projects, including parking‑lot and lighting work at the Justice Building, fiber connections, a courthouse chiller installation labor cost and HVAC for three shelter sites.

Budget reductions: County staff presented completed projects and requested budget reductions totaling $897,561 so remaining dollars can be reallocated. Items listed included a fire alarm system, tower connectivity, a 1300 North highway project, courthouse camera system (no longer needed because a grant was received), historical society repairs, community services HVAC, box truck purchase, Beeman Home upgrades and Justice Building renovations.

New ARPA requests and appropriations: The council approved ARPA requests totaling $1,267,993 for items including: Justice Building parking lot ($721,340), Justice Building parking lot lights ($144,553), initial work-release fiber ($125,000 initially phased), courthouse chiller installation labor ($85,000), HVAC systems for three public-safety shelter sites ($79,600), and parking-lot fiber ($47,500) among others. The council then approved additional appropriations to fund those requests; the recorded additional-appropriation motion used a total figure in the minutes that the presenter read as approximately $1,260,993 after some back-and-forth on exact totals; the council voted to approve the additional appropriations as presented.

Other appropriations: Council also approved an additional appropriation of $45,000 from the employee health-insurance fund to cover clinic staffing through year-end and approved a reassessment legal-fees appropriation for the assessor (amount not specified in the meeting transcript after transfers) and a part-time payroll increase for a county office (amount not specified in the transcript) to reflect a new part-time pay scale.

Why it matters: The actions reallocate remaining ARPA dollars from completed projects to active county capital and infrastructure priorities and fund operational needs for county facilities and services.

Next steps: County staff will process the budget reductions and additional appropriations and prepare implementation plans for the authorized projects.