Porter County is moving ahead with the process of allocating $33 million in federal COVID-19 money. The county council Tuesday agreed to appropriate $4 million of the American Rescue Plan funds, including almost $1 million for employee stipends, $2.5 million toward the Marquette Greenway Trail, $500,000 for township trustees and $25,000 for a behavioral health study.
Meanwhile, officials are putting together a central committee and four subcommittees to divide up the rest of the money. Auditor Vicki Urbanik will serve as facilitator of the central committee, after a previous proposal to appoint consultant Stu Summers drew concern. The county council and commissioners will each appoint one member of the public to each subcommittee. Residents have until March 8 to apply.
But some residents still have concerns with the process. Susie Talevski didn't feel that two public representatives per subcommittee were enough. She also told council members to focus on the immediate pandemic response, rather than infrastructure upgrades.
"I mean, this has been a pandemic. This has been a big tragedy. Many people have lost their lives. There's many people, actually, suffering from long COVID," Talevski said.
But others noted that infrastructure is part of the American Rescue Plan, and many sections of Porter County are in need of wastewater upgrades.
