By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County commissioners have been frustrated a bit as they attempt to plan spending coronavirus relief money allocated by Congress.
Buchanan County has received nearly $17 million from the American Rescue Plan.
The problem, according to Presiding Commissioner Lee Sawyer, is that the federal government hasn’t issued final rules for spending the money and worthy projects wait for funding.
“You do want to get people moving on these things, but we also want to make sure that we’re not making any missteps,” Sawyer tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
Sawyer has been talking with the state and federal officials, attempting to get clarification, before giving money to projects that seem to fit the criteria.
“If we could help these folks get moving on some of this stuff, it would be great, because it really fits within, we think, the intent of the legislation and the intent of how the money should be spent,” according to Sawyer.
A problem with the latest federal coronavirus relief allocation is that the federal government hasn’t issued final rules for how the money can be spent. The Department of Treasury has issued what it calls its “interim final rule,” a phrase surely only a federal bureaucrat can love. Sawyer says it appears now a final rule might never be issued by the federal government, leaving the rules just tentative enough to concern the commission.
It appears the money can be spent on infrastructure. Sawyer says the commission is considering at least one proposal to increase the size of a water pipeline from its current two-inch circumference to six inches. Broadband expansion might also fall under the infrastructure category. The commission has been talking with United Fiber of Savannah about a project to expand broadband in the county.
Sawyer says the County Commission has been working to make sure the application and approval process for projects are done correctly.
“It’s kind of overwhelming when you think about all the different paperwork that’s going to go with this to make sure that when we’re asked down the road, okay how exactly was this used, what were the outcomes?” Sawyer says. “That we’ve got it all in order on the front end.”
Sawyer says he has been talking with the Missouri Treasurer’s Office, getting guidance on how the money can be spent.