By Meladi Brewer
DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Darke County board of Commissioners met Wednesday to discuss 2020 CDBG Grant, APR Grant, and new flag retirement box. Commissioners Matt Aultman, Mike Stegall, and Larry Holmes were all present.

The board approved the motion for a letter of recommendation and notice of award for the CDBG Project to put new sidewalks in the Village of Palestine. Susan Laux spoke up about the project. The project received two bids for the project on Monday for the sidewalk on N. Main St. Deciding to move forward with the base bid, as well as, the alternate bid.

“That is about $2,500 more than they had originally allotted for their share,” Laux said. “They are willing to pay the extra and understand it is their responsibility for everything over the $42,500 that you have granted them.”

She continued on to ask the commissioners to award the project base and alternate to PAB Construction of Coldwater. She stated the Village understands any cost above the allotted grant amount would have to be worked out and paid for by them. The total project will cost $53,032.43.

The commissioners also approved an application to employ legal counsel for the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Grant. Margaret B. Hayes, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, spoke out about the application and explained it is a precaution to ensure the grant money is going to be spent in an applicable way.

“Since it is a Federal grant there are extra steps that have to be gone through, and the regulations haven’t been released yet,” Hayes says.

This brings confusion and caution moving forward to ensure the money is utilized in a proper way.

“It would be a good idea for us to have a firm that specialized in these types of grants to make sure that whatever we decide to do would have an approved purpose,” Hayes said. “That way we don’t spend this money and find out later that it wasn’t appropriate and have to repay it.”

Sean P. Byrne, Attorney at Law at Vorys, Sater, Seymore, and Pease LLP, does government work at a national level and is considered to be on the ball with the situation. The board motioned to approve with an overall census Bryne is part of a good organization and would be a fitting choice for grant help. Not only is he essential to helping maximize the grant, he can also be paid through the grant.

“It is actually an approved purpose. In fact they want you to work with these accounting types of firms, so you do it right,” Hayes said.

The ARP Grant is essentially a Covid 2.0 plan for bettering the community during the pandemic, the aftercare of the pandemic, and future Covid related issues.

The board also announced a new flag retirement box located in the office. If you have old, tattered flags you need destroyed, you can bring them into the office, and the commissioners will send it off to have it taken care of properly.

The Darke County Board of Commissioners meets every Monday and Wednesday at the county administrative office located at 520 S. Broadway in Greenville. For more information, contact the commissioner’s office at 937-547-7370.

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].