Valley County signs off on Title 3 expense report, will hold nonbudgeted spending pending SRS decision

Valley County commissioners approved the county's fiscal 2024 Title 3 expenditure report and directed staff to hold any nonbudgeted Title 3 payments until the county's SRS funding status is clarified.

The commissioners voted to approve the report after Clerk Rick Miller summarized the account activity and expenditures. "The received funds for Title 3 was a $111,357.36," Miller said, and he listed equipment and training obligations recorded against the account. Miller said the report shows $25,237.66 in obligations for training costs and equipment purchases related to emergency services.

The meeting also recorded a remaining Title 3 balance as of Sept. 30, 2024: "the remaining funds that we have for Title 3 as of September 30, 2024 was a $156,974.84," Miller said. Commissioners later noted that the county has not yet received approval for its SRS allocation for the year and that, as a result, they will withhold any expendable Title 3 disbursements that are not already budgeted.

The action fulfills a reporting requirement to the U.S. Forest Service documenting how Title 3 funds were used in fiscal year 2024, and the clerk signed the certification at the meeting. Commissioners moved and seconded the motion to approve the expenditure report, and the motion passed.

The commissioners were told that Title 3 is one of three related funding streams from the federal program; Title 1 supports road work, Title 2 supports forest projects, and Title 3 funds wildfire mitigation. Officials said that if SRS funding is not appropriated, planned road and wildfire-mitigation projects funded from the forest bucket could be affected.