Allocation of Chickasaw County ARPA Funds Questioned Yet Again

The debate over County ARPA funds continued at Monday’s (09.11) Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors meeting.

At the center of the controversy is approval of $50,000 in ARPA funds to Nashua to help study the health of the Cedar Lake dam. Nashua Mayor Alex Anthofer explained that his initial request wasn’t specifically for ARPA money.

Since then, ARPA requests for infrastructure projects in Alta Vista, Ionia, Lawler and North Washington were all voted down, with supervisors Matt Kuhn and Steven Breitbach voting YES and supervisors Scott Cerwinske, Travis Suckow and Jacob Hackman voting NO.

During their September 5th meeting, the votes were flipped when the Board approved moving about $600,000 (out of about $667,000) in County ARPA money to the secondary roads department, pending a budget amendment. Monday, Hackman gave more detail as to why he made the motion.

While allocations to Nashua and secondary roads might be appropriate, County recorder Shirley Troyna said they needed more consideration first.

Supervisors Chair Matt Kuhn noted that, for decisions like these, being fair and equitable is a balancing act for Board members.

At Monday’s meeting, no action was taken on Anthofer’s letter of support to award almost $29,000 in ARPA money to Alta Vista for their road project which Hackman said could likely be covered by the County either budget wise or through possible grants.