Sumner County finance staff report backlog of capital projects; new project manager hired and ARPA reallocation updates given

Sumner County finance officials told the General Operations Committee Monday they have found disordered project files, are hiring new staff and are prioritizing completion of capital projects previously delayed by staff turnover.

Beth, the county finance director, introduced Scott Shamrock as “project and GRAMA specialist,” a new hire who will help organize project files and act as construction project manager for pending county work. Beth said Shamrock had been on the job roughly three weeks and “has worked many hours, going through the paper files.” She told the committee several file cabinets and electronic folders remain to be reviewed.

Finance staff described a range of outstanding capital projects:

- Archives roof: finance is reviewing the contract before sending it to legal. - Millersville EMS: a contract is being rewritten after earlier liability concerns. - Franklin Street storm-drain project: drawings prepared by Kimley-Horn had been through the City of Gallatin plan check but staff flagged the design as not meeting county bonding requirements. The committee authorized staff to request a Zoom meeting with an Atlanta-based consultant; Beth said the county had spent $5,000 of a $10,000 purchase order earmarked for that consultant and planned to ask for the remaining funds to finish engineering and bidding. - Courthouse build-out and parking garage: commissioners discussed an outstanding vendor invoice for removal of a church canopy in the parking garage area. Finance has an executed contract that calls for the county to pay the church and for the church to pay the vendor; the vendor has invoiced the county for $8,100. Finance staff are locating missing contract files and said they have only recently acquired access to the previous project manager’s electronic files.

On American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Beth told the committee that several ARPA projects have been signed, contracted and paid or reallocated. She said the county had over-allocated ARPA funding on paper, based on consultant recommendations; actual overages would be covered from the capital projects fund. She reported the sheriff’s office returned approximately $113,000 of unused ARPA funding that will be re-appropriated into a Westmoreland EMS project. She also noted that some ARPA-funded projects remain behind schedule, including a water-tank-linked SWIG (broadband/water infrastructure) project.

Committee members pressed finance on records management and continuity. Staff described inconsistent organization in past project files — folders mixed unrelated documents and items turned every which way — and said they are creating standard operating procedures and digital tracking to prevent future turnover problems. Commissioner Jones urged frequent, short monthly bullet-point updates to the committee listing “what’s moving on or off” the project list; staff said a meeting was scheduled to tidy outstanding projects and prepare that list.

The committee voted to put the Franklin Street engineering purchase order ($10,000) onto the budget agenda for the next stage of approval and asked finance to follow up with Gallatin Public Utilities and the city’s point of contact to coordinate staging and bidding. No new appropriations were approved beyond items already on the budget calendar.

Commissioners left the capital projects and ARPA updates in old business and asked for monthly status reports.