ROCKLAND – Again, the Knox County Budget Committee met in joint session with Knox County Commissioners Thursday, February 3, via Zoom, to figure out how to spend the $7.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding; $3.86 million of that money needs to be allotted by May. There are now two lists the county is considering: $6.6 million of its own proposed county-related expenditures, plus another $6.4 million in requested expenditures.

Commissioners and the committee spent almost two and a half hours assessing the county’s own list of projects it would like to see approved. That list totaled $6,576,369 million. Committee members agreed to continue working on the county’s list at the next budgetary meeting.  They also spent a lot of time considering a request to pay county employees – Knox Regional Communications, sheriff deputies, jail staff, airport employees, and informational technology employees — extra pay for their working during the pandemic and being essential workers.

Those employees were also payed a stipend in December for being essential workers during the pandemic.

At the meeting, the Budget Committee members and Commissioners did not discuss the $6 million in requests that had moved forward for consideration from the last meeting for municipalities and nonprofits was not discussed. 

At the next scheduled meeting, February 17, the focus will remain on the county ARPA fund requests, and the other nonprofit and municipal requests are to be considered at the following meeting.

Knox County Administrator Andrew Hart said there were items he was willing to remove from the county’s own list in an effort to expedite the process. 

At the end of the session, Hart cautioned members that time was critical. For the final vote to take place a public hearing must be scheduled and at least a 10-day notice given. He said the finance department must put together a final budget and it has to get sent out to towns.  

“The last thing I want,” said Hart, “is for one of the towns to say we violated the charter, and then we have to start all over.”  

With the topic of stipends taking up most of the meeting, the debate centered around should they be continued.  

Hart said the stipends had been approved through December 31, 2021. He said they have some openings and they have people who are still here thinking that the stipends might continue.  

“Stipends are in limbo,” said Hart. “It would be good to take action on those items.”  

“The final rule made a distinction between recruitment and retention,” said Commissioner Dorothy Meriwether. “And what was premium pay for essential workers, which is basically what we paid last year.” 

Meriwether said her interpretation was to compensate for the additional risk for people that were frontline workers. 

There is a distinction between recruit and retention in two departments: Corrections and dispatch.  

“I think we need to give serious considerations to the stipends in those two departments,” said Meriwether. 

No decision was made as to how exactly to move forward with the stipends.  

Other items moved forward included:

• $11,370 for a jail dishwasher that doesn’t keep the temperature required to clean the dishes. Sheriff Tim Carroll said the dishwasher is 30 year old and has to meet water temperature requirements; it failed during the last inspection. 

• $300,000 for microwave dishes for communications. Communications director Robert Combs said the money is needed to replace all of the dishes that were put up in 2012. 

“The dishes are weathered and cracked,” he said. “This is part of the infrastructure that allows the towers to talk to each other.”  

• $20,000 for a hazmat decontamination tent that was damaged during COVID.  

Ray Sisk said the tent allows the hospital to run a decontamination line in case there is a hazardous materials incident. The tent provides a space for victims to be decontaminated before they are allowed into the hospital.  

“This particular tent was used in the fall of 2020 as part of the acute respiratory testing that they stood up behind the hospital for COVID testing,” Sisk said. “It did not survive a windstorm and is beyond repair. This is a capability we would like to restore to the county.” 

There was a straw vote on whether each of the county’s 18 EMA directors should receive a $1,000 stipend. Committee members voted to match up to $500 with whatever the towns put forward. The original amount was $18,000 and was reduced to a maximum payout by the county of $9,000.  

Many items were left not talked about and committee members said they would try to complete the list at the next meeting.