County committee advances series of appropriations, transfers and grants

At a St. Joseph County Council committee meeting, members voted by voice to advance a package of appropriations, transfers and grant-related salary amendments for further consideration by the full council.

The committee recommended favorably an appropriation of $903,660 to cover final settlements and vehicle replacements related to a recent fire. According to discussion before the vote, an earlier internal estimate of settlement costs was stated as $2,300,000 and later adjusted to about $2.2 million; the additional appropriation described would pay for three replacement vehicles and draw on the county's liability fund because catastrophic vehicle insurance did not apply.

Courtney (staff) described a $40,000 transfer to cover higher-than-budgeted unemployment claims; she said the office does not expect to use the full amount and chose a cautious approach to avoid returning to council later in the year. Amy Rolfes, Clerk of the Circuit Court, said the clerk's office received a $25,881.60 grant from the secretary of state to upgrade absentee-voting technology and asked the committee to appropriate that award to purchase equipment.

Skye Meters, Department of Infrastructure Planning and Growth, asked the committee to approve a transfer of roughly $382,730 in ARP funds originally allocated to the Alexander Drive garage project. Skye said the transfer would be used to pay next year's leases for nearly 29 highway pickup trucks and would prevent drawing the same amount from the LRSA paving account in 2025. Skye and other staff told the committee they had confirmed ARP use would not conflict with federal requirements but reminded members that unencumbered ARP funds must be acted on by year-end.

Guy Meaders (IPG) said the county received a $1.5 million Community Crossings matching grant for road work and asked that the award be appropriated so contractors can be paid for work completed this year. Shannon Schoch, director of operations for the county assessor, described an appropriation to pay a third-party vendor to perform a countywide land study required every four years by House Enrolled Act 1454 (amending the cited section of state statute); the assessor's office will use the sales-disclosure fund created in 2024 to cover that contract.

Health department staff outlined a no-cost extension for a community health worker grant that will fund eight community health workers with $181,382.40 carried into 2025. The prosecutor's office requested a $23,309.49 amendment to accept and appropriate funds provided by the University of Notre Dame for 10 part-time students in a cybercrime unit. Brenda Matthew Skavich, executive director of CASA St. Joseph County, asked the committee to appropriate $450,450 in a two-year VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) reimbursement grant to fund three staff positions; the grant requires a local match and reimburses salaries and benefits from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2026.

Most items were advanced by voice vote with no recorded roll-call tallies in the committee transcript. Each advanced bill will appear on the council's full meeting agenda for final action.

Ending: The committee chair closed the budget section and moved on to planning and rezoning items on the agenda.