By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County is close to awarding American Rescue Plan Funding for several ongoing projects mostly dealing with critical infrastructure.
Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner Lee Sawyer says one of those projects deals with improving rural broadband in the county.
"The (Missouri) Department of Economic Development, through this budget that the legislature put together and that the governor (Mike Parson) is yet to sign, there's a big chunk of money that's been put in for rural broadband," Sawyer said. "So, it's us trying to take our dollars and try to match with that."
Buchanan County is setting aside around $2 million from the American Rescue Plan for rural broadband improvement. The county is working closely with United Fiber - a Savannah-based fiber-optic network that provides high speed broadband services to rural areas in the northwest part of the state.
Sawyer says another $280,000 will go toward new sewer pumps at Lake Contrary, replacing current pumps that are close to 50 years old.
"This will really change how they can treat their water and how that works," he said. "It fits really well within the American Rescue Plan, because it's considered wastewater infrastructure."
Another $160,000 will go toward a new waterline at River Ridge Road. Buchanan County was allocated about $17 million from the American Rescue Plan in total.
This money is also going toward things like education and economic development, including the Hillyard Technical Center. To help aid economic development, Buchanan County is very close to finishing its new comprehensive plan - something that hadn't been updated since 1996.
Sawyer says a draft of this 128-page plan is up on the county's website right now.
"It'll be a nice document to be able to share and send if people really want to get in depth about what's going on in the county."
Sawyer says the county's employment numbers, graduation rate, income levels and population information are all included in the plan, along with in depth planning and zoning guidance.
Sawyer is hopeful that this plan can be a helpful guide for anyone looking to start a business within the county. He also hopes that will lead to more people making their home in the county as well.
"We'd love to see population increase between 2020 and the next census," he said. "That's another metric we put in (the comprehensive plan) is population, because we have to change that trend."
Buchanan County saw a 4.9 percent population decrease from 2010 - 2020.
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