T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY - The Marshall County Board of Supervisors’ chambers were adorned with decorations to celebrate the retirement of Steve Salasek, left, during Tuesday morning’s special meeting.

Almost a week after bids for renovations to the Marshall County Jail/Sheriff’s Office came in well above the estimates county officials had been provided, the Board of Supervisors convened for a brief special meeting on Tuesday morning to affirm that the remaining $2.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the county will still be spent on the project.

Steve Salasek, in his final meeting as a supervisor before he officially retires from his seat, made the motion to approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and Board Chairman Jarret Heil explained how the “contract of sorts” allows the county to keep the funds slated for the sheriff’s office project. The dollars must be committed by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026, or they will return to the federal treasury.

County Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson said she and several other county employees including Sheriff Joel Phillips, Assistant Auditor/Recorder Maria Vargas, Buildings and Grounds Director Lucas Baedke and County Attorney Jordan Gaffney had gone through the document and felt it was satisfactory. Benson commented that some counties are using ARPA dollars for payroll expenses “at the last minute,” and she felt Gaffney had crafted the MOU in a way that gives the county flexibility.

“One of our original thoughts was we didn’t want this to be operational. We wanted this to be project driven, and it’s nice that we’re able to have this interagency agreement that allows us to continue to keep this right at the project for the sheriff’s office instead of us saying ‘Well, we’ve got the money to spend, so let’s blow it real quick on stuff we can make work,'” Heil said. “Let’s keep this geared towards our plan.”

Supervisor Carol Hibbs asked about what happens now with the estimates they have set aside, and Baedke said it was something that would likely require a group of leaders to get together and determine a direction going forward before the budget process is over.

“I think that’s really gonna decide what our path forward is,” Baedke said. “At this point, we have some options, as far as I see it, but let’s come together as a team and say ‘We’re gonna go in this direction.'”

Benson suggested an additional special work session, and Salasek wondered if it made any sense to complete smaller chunks of the project at a time.

“That’s one of the paths we could take forward. My worry on that is when you start stripping things out of the process or of the overall project, you’re really not getting your best price, which would be my largest concern there,” Baedke said.

The upside, however, was that if the projects were broken into small enough chunks (around $216,000), they could potentially circumvent the public bidding process and reach out to local contractors on their best prices. Sheriff Joel Phillips stepped forward and told the board he was as surprised as anyone else about the high bids the county received, but he speculated that the difficulty of working on a jail facility may have driven up the costs.

The motion to approve the MOU passed by a unanimous tally.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.