Potter County Commissioner’s Court voted 5-0 on July 14 to approve three amendments to active SLFRF (ARPA) projects after staff said the changes fall within Treasury guidance on modifying obligated projects.
The county’s ARPA program lead, John Kiel (staff member), told the court the items are “minor modifications” to ongoing projects and are being covered largely from contingency rather than new budget authority. Kiel said the county has “the ability to make changes to those projects even though we have passed the obligation deadline” and that the changes are consistent with guidance received from the U.S. Treasury.
The amendments described in the agenda packet and discussed in court were:
- Courthouse holding cell plumbing: additional plumbing equipment to prevent inmates from damaging commodes. Kiel said “we missed 1 of those commodes” and the work is to “make sure they’re all well protected.” He described the change as a relatively small amount compared with the booking-room project’s total cost (about $1,900,000).
- Booking-room adjustments: the contractor identified late items while closing out the booking-room project. Kiel said the change orders on that project were negotiated down and are being handled from project contingency; the booking-room project and its financing were discussed later in more detail by the project manager.
- Santa Fe Building chiller/pump enhancement: pump equipment additions intended to extend service life of the new chiller system; Kiel said about $107,000 had originally been built into contingency for the chiller project.
Kiel told the court that the ARPA project status report shows about $150,000 of “bucket 1” money that may fall back to the federal government and a small remaining balance in “bucket 2.” He described a possible path to reallocate any bucket-2 fallout to reimburse the county for a $39,000 change order already advanced on the Jim Line Road project, saying, “I would suggest that with any dollar that falls out of bucket 2 that just goes back to make up the cost of that $39,000.”
Commissioners discussed whether the county could legally permit a reallocation and whether the ARPA advisory committee should weigh in; Kiel said the committee would meet to consider the options. Judge Joe Tanner asked if the court could vote on the three recommended amendments that day; the ARPA committee recommendation was read into the record and the court approved the changes 5-0.
What this means: the amendments reflect closeout and lifecycle work identified as projects near completion and are being funded primarily from project contingency and remaining ARPA bucket balances. Staff said final closeout reporting will show whether additional small amounts remain to be reallocated or will revert.