Commissioners give out ARPA grants; Moore criticizes spending

The Lorain County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 Wednesday to spend $350,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds on grants to small Lorain County businesses and two nonprofit agencies adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. A grant of $100,000 went to Oberlin Community Services while Let's Get Real Inc., a peer support and services agency for those with substance use disorders, received $50,000. Commissioners Matt Lundy, a Democrat, and Michelle Hung, a Republican, voted yes. As he has in the past, Commissioner David Moore, a Republican, voted no on the grants to the nonprofits and "present" on the grants to small businesses. Oberlin Community Services Executive Director Margie Flood said her agency supports people throughout southern Lorain County and elsewhere with food, job training, and emergency rental, utility and mortgage assistance. OCS is one of the only nonprofits in that area of the county offering weekly access to food. Better access to nutritious food, Flood said, improves educational outcomes and the overall health of the community and OCS gives away 4 to 5 tons of food each week through partner food pantries, home deliveries, schools and other means. The pandemic had a "severe impact" on OCS' services, which reach from Oberlin to Wellington to LaGrange, Grafton, Amherst, Kipton, South Amherst and New London, she said. In 2021-22, the agency provided nearly $200,000 in assistance to families in those towns and the townships around them. OCS also helps low-income youths find job training through its Job Experience Training Interns or JETI program, Flood said. The agency signed a $2.7 million deal earlier to purchase and move into a new building at 500 E. Lorain St./state Route 511 that has more storage and meeting space. The money provided by commissioners will assist in that move and with programs OCS runs in partnership with Lorain County Public Health, Lorain County Community College, the United Way, Legal Aid and the Lorain County Community Action Agency, Flood said. She called it "a one-stop shop for clients" who will have all their needs met under one roof. Federal funding and donations also are helping with the project, Flood said. Hung said she was proud to be a partner in the project, and Lundy said he was glad to help make investments "in good community projects to help the people of Lorain County." Moore said he appreciated a private tour Flood recently gave the commissioners but was concerned it was added to the board's agenda only the day before. But he also said he still had questions about the process. "I support your organization but won't be supporting this today," Moore told Flood. Moore said the same to Let's Get Real Executive Director Kim Eberle, whose agency received $50,000 from the board. Eberle said peer-supported and peer-run recovery is run by people in recovery for people in or seeking recovery services. Her nonprofit peer-to-peer counseling and gets people with addiction disorders set up with treatment, detoxification services and other recovery services and are on-call 24/7, she said. Let's Get Real also has held groups and meetings for family members and children of people with substance use disorders weekly for the past nearly 10 years, and works with local court systems to help those who get in legal trouble as a result of addiction, Eberle said. She said she is concerned about an upcoming reduction in funding from a state-funded opioid response grant that is distributed through the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board of Lorain County, money that she said her agency needs to keep helping those with addiction and in treatment. Commissioners previously set aside $1.5 million in ARPA funds to help small businesses in the county that were negatively affected by the pandemic. A list of the most recent recipients was not published by the end of business Wednesday. "This is part of our ongoing commitment to the small-business community," Lundy said. "We're hoping this will help these businesses through." In other financial matters, Moore also voted against a request by the Lorain County Sheriff's Office for a $47,000 motorcycle and for work on the sheriff's office's internet network security system, or firewall. He said the commissioners already are spending "millions fixing our firewall" and he didn't want to spend general fund dollars on the sheriff's system. Both Hung and Lundy voted for the items, with Hung noting that the items were in the sheriff's 2022 budget and already signed off on by the board. Sheriff Phil Stammitti "is an elected official and I think he gets to make that determination and it's in his budget," Lundy said. Moore said the phrase "It's in our budget" is "an excuse." "Don't expect an easy path soon," he said in comments he referred to as "my shot across the bow." "Just because it's in your budget doesn't mean it's not going to be reviewed, it's not going to be looked at," Moore said. "Decisions will be made. Because if it's in your budget … then why do we have to vote on it on a weekly basis to approve it if it's already in your budget? Maybe we can change the way we do business if that's the way we're going to do business." Moore said he expects the county to be running a fiscal deficit next year, but Lundy said through "managing the budget tightly" he expects a $40 million surplus in county funds in 2023. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.