Hill County Commission tables discussion of ARPA funds for health department

In its weekly business meeting Thursday the Hill County Commission tabled discussion of providing the Hill County Health Department with American Rescue Plan Act funds at the request of Hill County Public Health Director Kim Berg.

The commission voted to table the discussion because they wanted a chance to get more information from Berg about the wages of her contact tracers that the funds would pay for but hadn’t heard back.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said she suspects Berg didn’t have time as she was working on a COVID-19 test distribution event this week and was likely delayed.

This morning Berg said she received an email from the commission on Monday asking for the information on wages, and Berg then requested that other expenses that assist with making contact tracing/case investigation possible be accepted for ARPA funds as well.

She said she heard back from the commission, asking to get that information to them on Tuesday, but between the test distribution event and a family situation couldn’t get them the information and requested that they table the ARPA funds discussion until next week because she wasn’t sure if she would be able to be at the Thursday meeting.

Health department seeking funding for months

In September of last year the commission voted to allocate up to $100,000 in ARPA money to the department so they could pay for the extreme amount of contact tracing and case investigation they are faced with amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said in a quarterly meeting of the Hill County Health Board Jan. 26 that he hadn’t signed any documents authorizing the department to use the money the commission voted to allocate them last year.

Berg, also the county health officer, said in a health board meeting back in August of last year that her department received no funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, which she said could have been used to bolster her department and keep it sustainable had the Hill County Commission allocated it.

She said she had reached out to the commission multiple times by email asking for funds to keep the department sustainable along with suggestions about holding public meetings on the subject, but received no reply.

When she saw in the Havre Daily News that the commission was talking about how to use the money, she said, she reached out again to ask why no funds were being allocated to public health given the fact that the pandemic was still ongoing but received no answer beyond that the commission’s primary use for the funds was the Milk River Levee project.

After the commissioners voted to allocate the ARPA money to the department, she said at last month’s meeting, she asked Hill County Clerk and Recorder Sue Armstrong what she would need to do to get access to that money, and was told to provide the necessary documents, which she did, but was later told that the commission wouldn’t sign off on the money because they believed she already had enough money.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean denied that that wording had been used, but nearly all of her, and Peterson’s, hesitance to give Berg’s department access to the money was framed around recent budget adjustment and grants the department received, which they said calls into question whether the department needs the money.

Berg addressed these recent grants and budget adjustment and said they all pay for specific positions and programs, and none address the issues she needs the ARPA money for, namely paying her employees for their work.

She said these grants cannot be used to do that, and the department rarely uses all of the money provided in those grants because the department’s pay scale isn’t that high.

She said these grants only apply to new hires of contract tracers and case investigators, which she doesn’t have, not for the people who have been working nonstop since the pandemic began and have had to be compensated with county general funds because she doesn’t have the ARPA dollars necessary to pay them.

Peterson said they would set up a meeting soon between the commission and Berg to get their questions answered and Berg asked to have the clerk and recorder there.

Berg said this morning that that meeting has not yet happened.

Commission approves board appointment and Highway 2 Association dues

At the meeting the commission also approved the appointment of Jake Phillips to the Havre-Hill County Airport Board and approved $100 in dues to the Highway 2 Association, which was tabled last week.

Strissel said he didn’t know much about the association and wanted more time to learn about the entity to make sure he could support being part of it, which said he will now that he knows more about it.

“Looking more into it I do believe this is worthwhile,” he said.

The Highway 2 Association is a local group that has been trying to draw more business to the area by making its namesake more hospitable and attractive to drivers.

McLean read a letter from association President Bob Sivertsen that said they’re hopeful that funds provided to Montana through the recent infrastructure package passed through Congress will be made available to improve Highway 2.

The letter encouraged local officials to nominate U.S. Highway 2 Upgrades for the Montana Department of Transportation’s tentative five-year construction plan, which will put it high in the running for the money Montana will be provided with for roads and bridges.

McLean also encouraged people to make their opinions on projects like this known.

She said letters of support always help a project’s chances of getting funded and while Hill County may have a tiny voice compared to that of the nation, people can make a difference.

“Unless we make our voices heard we will be left out,” she said.