Letters give some insight into ARPA spending for projects

Crown Point’s Uran asked commissioners to amend plan for additional $5 million

The Lake County Board of Commissioners and the city of Crown Point are discussing and negotiating how to spend American Rescue Plan Act funds for sewer projects within the commissioners’ plan for spending the funds, according to letters obtained by the Post-Tribune.

But, then-Crown Point Mayor David Uran asked the commissioners to amend their plan to include $5 million for a separate sewer project. The Lake County Council approved a resolution in March to allocate $5 million in APRA funds to Crown Point, but the commissioners stated the resolution goes against federal and state guidance for spending ARPA funds.

The Lake County Board of Commissioners declined to be interviewed, and Uran, who started a new job leading the South Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau on Thursday, did not respond to requests for comment.

Lake County received about $94 million in funds through ARPA, and in October the commissioners heard proposals for sewer projects that would use up the funds, board president Commissioner Michael Repay, D-3rd, previously said.

The commissioners passed a plan late last year that identified two sewer infrastructure improvement projects in unincorporated Calumet

Township and Center Township, Repay previously said.

In an April 13 letter from the commissioners to Uran, the commissioners stated a portion of the APRA funds will go toward seven subdivisions in Center Township, south and west of Crown Point’s city limits: Oakwood Hills, West Long, Oak Heights, Lawndale, Sleepy Hollow, Greenhill Ranches Annex 2 and West Point Acres.

The subdivisions, with 359 homes total, would be moved from septic to sewer systems. The county would construct and pay for the proposed projects, and Crown Point would be responsible for operating and maintaining the sewer projects, according to the commissioners’ letter.

The county would pay a one-time connection fee of $2.4 million to Crown Point for the capacity necessary to serve the users in the subdivisions. The county would pay an additional roughly $2.8 million for its share of the costs for the west side interceptor improvements, according to the commissioner’s letter.

“The construction of this treatment plant is paramount to Crown Point’s ability to allow for the connection to the current treatment plant. Without the capacity relief to the current treatment plant by way of the construction

of the southside wastewater treatment plant it would not be feasible for Crown Point to receive flows from the additional connections provided from unincorporated Lake County/Center Township.”

— Crown Point Mayor David Uran, in a May 18 letter

In a letter dated May 18, Uran wrote the commissioners stating “the parties are in agreement with several items” listed in the commissioner’s letter, like the county covering the cost and expense to install a sewer collection system, lift station and force mains to connect subdivisions to Crown Point’s wastewater treatment system.

The parties also agree that the county would pay a one-time connection fee of $2.4 million to Crown Point and the roughly $2.8 million from the county to the city to construct a westside interceptor to accept the flow from the users connecting to the system.

But, Uran wrote, “there are a few items which need further clarification,” like the service lines and grinder pumps ownership and maintenance would be the responsibility of each individual connecting user.

In the letter, Uran requested a meeting with each commissioner to talk about amending the commissioner’s plan for spending the ARPA funds to include an additional $5 million “as previously appropriated by the Lake County Council.”

Uran, a Democrat, worked with the council on potential funding assistance from the county’s ARPA funds for the $99 million project that would bring a sewer treatment facility to the area currently served by septic and well water.

Uran previously said the new facility would take 1 million gallons of stormwater out of the city’s current treatment facility reducing water backup incidents for existing customers. It would also pave the way for new development, both residential and commercial, in the southeast area of Lake County south of U.S. 231 and east of Interstate 65.

Uran sought $5 million from the county that will be used to secure $5 million state ARPA funding through a State Water Infrastructure Fund grant from the Indiana Finance Authority. Crown Point will also use $5 million of its own ARPA funds to secure an additional $5 million from the IFA.

“The construction of this treatment plant is paramount to Crown Point’s ability to allow for the connection to the current treatment plant by the users in unincorporated Lake County/Center Township. Without the capacity relief to the current treatment plant by way of the construction of the southside wastewater treatment plant it would not be feasible for Crown Point to receive flows from the additional connections provided from unincorporated Lake County/Center Township,” Uran wrote in his letter to the commissioners.

Repay previously said the allocation of the funds goes against federal guidance and the state board of accounts memorandum for spending ARPA funds.

The memorandum states the “ARP grant fund must be established by ordinance of the County Commissioners.” The funds “must be appropriated by the fiscal body before use in accordance with ... the ordinance and the plan,” the memorandum continues.

Repay previously said the projects in the commissioner’s ARPA spending plan are underway and in the engineering stages. For the $5 million to be spent on the Crown Point project, Repay previously said it would have to be included in the commissioners’ ARPA spending plan.

“In order the spend, there are a lot of restrictions on the ability to spend ARPA and the way you need to spend it. First of all, the executive branch needs to pass a plan, which we have, and the fiscal body has to appropriate in accordance with the plan,” Repay previously said.

At its May 18 meeting, the commissioners approved amending its plan to allocate $10 million for revenue replacement, which aligns with U.S. Treasury rules, Repay previously said.

The amended plan allows the council to use the $10 million for revenue replacement from the county’s self insurance fund, a fund that typically covers employee health claims or liability claims, he previously said.

While the $10 million will go into the self insurance funds, it means that $5 million of ARPA funds couldn’t directly go into a Crown Point sewer project, Repay previously said. But, because the council won’t have to move money into the self insurance fund because of the $10 million ARPA funding, theoretically the council can move up to $10 million into different parts of the budget, he previously said.

“You can see where, at the end of the year, stuff gets plugged into those funds typically anyway, so that’s a fund that will not have to get plugged in. That’s $10 million that will not have to get plugged in,” Repay previously said.