News last week that Bartholomew County had by year’s end spent just 11 percent of a $16 million allocation of federal money through the American Rescue Plan is disheartening. The county missed opportunities to better deploy emergency COVID relief money in ways that could have gotten more shots in arms and reduced the severity of the recent omicron surge.
As The Republic’s Mark Webber reported this week, small amounts of the $16 million in federal money have been spent in a few categories, and the county has earmarked areas where it intends to make some significant investments.
However, it’s hard to figure how more wasn’t done sooner with a giant pot of federal relief money accessible to the county during a resurgent pandemic.
For instance, the county set aside $600,000 of this money for additional health department staff, but had spent only a little less than $1,500 of that sum by the end of the year. And of $1 million that was supposed to have been spent on vaccine clinics, just $45,692 had been. Those are paltry, head-scratching sums.
County Auditor Pia O’Connor prepared the report on ARP spending for county commissioners. She noted the county “paid for lots of these clinics over the last year with other specific grants.” That’s great, as far as it goes.
The problem is, the county had the money and the opportunity to do more, should have been doing more, but either lacked the will to do more or chose not to do more with this money.
The county could have invested a big part of that $1 million for vaccine clinics in outreach and education efforts to persuade more people to get vaccinated and boosted. Could have even offered cash incentives as some places have. The county could have tried something.
The county also could have worked in concert with Columbus Regional Health to support a holistic public-health response. That might have reduced the severity of the recent surge that saw the hospital set admissions records, stretched to the limit with COVID patients.
To be clear, commissioners have earmarked a good amount of the $16 million in ARP money for good uses. For example, they’ll spend $4 million on expanding countywide broadband access. They’ll provide $1 million to cover lost revenue of certain nonprofits. At least $1 million is set aside for rural fire departments, for parks, and for township assistance.
And there is still time for commissioners to find additional uses for the money, even though they said they were having a difficult time finding legal and appropriate ways to spend the money.
That suggests a lack of imagination. Commissioners should have realized by now that this money has a wide range of potential uses. If they need help figuring out how best to use it in the county’s interest, they should seek out potential public health partners or professional consultants who surely have ideas.
Commissioners have known since last April how much ARP funding they would be getting. That money has been in hand — and, regrettably for public health, has stayed there — since May.
Commissioners missed an opportunity to make a dent in the pandemic all of last year by failing to use money they earmarked to directly support community public health.
