Dec. 25—EAU CLAIRE — Including photo voltaic panels on high of two county buildings and bettering ingesting water testing are the most recent initiatives Eau Claire County officers are funding with federal pandemic reduction {dollars}. .
Eventually week’s County Board assembly, supervisors voted 19-1 – 9 abstentions that night time – to fund the initiative with $527,933 from the county’s allocation of American Restoration Plan Act cash.
The initiatives had been beneficial by the county’s Administration Committee, which is reviewing a number of proposals for spend a few of the unallocated funds left over from the $20.3 million in federal funding awarded to the county in 2021.
“The bubbles are as much as the highest,” Nancy Coffey, a county supervisor who serves on that committee, mentioned of the chosen initiatives.
For $275,000, photo voltaic panels might be put in on high of the Human Companies Division wing of the Courthouse in Eau Claire and on the roof of the Eau Claire County Agriculture & Useful resource Heart in Altoona.
The photo voltaic panels will offset the electrical energy payments of the 2 buildings by producing clear power, which may also assist the county authorities in direction of its purpose of turning into carbon-neutral and operating on renewable power by 2050.
With roof repairs occurring now on the Courthouse and deliberate for subsequent 12 months on the Altoona constructing, Coffey mentioned it’s well timed and cost-effective to additionally add photo voltaic panels.
“It is sensible to do the photo voltaic on the similar time you are doing the renovations,” he mentioned.
The remaining $252,933 in ARPA funding allotted at Tuesday’s County Board assembly might be used to buy new water testing gear and supply free effectively assessments to 200 rural residents.
Of that, $155,000 will go towards the acquisition and set up of a classy laboratory instrument that may analyze water samples for sure metals. The Eau Claire Metropolis-County Well being Division requested the gear, stating in a memo that it will make for sooner and more cost effective testing for a number of contaminants in personal and municipal water samples.
The remaining $97,933 comes from final week’s ARPA allocation for testing 200 personal wells within the county for all kinds of water contaminants. The check outcomes will then be analyzed by UW-Eau Claire researchers in a research to determine any potential ingesting water points in rural areas.
“What we’re attempting to do with this personal testing of wells is we’re attempting to get a county-wide database,” Coffey mentioned.
The assessments might be free to county residents, and Coffey famous that the outcomes will assist them apply for state grants to assist with issues present in personal wells.
After final week’s determination to fund the initiatives, the county now has $428,794 left to allocate from American Restoration Plan Act {dollars}, Coffey mentioned.
Federal funding allocations beforehand made by the County Board had been used for rural broadband growth, grants to small companies and nonprofit organizations affected by the pandemic, and diminished county borrowing for capital initiatives.
Federal {dollars} have to be allotted by the top of 2024, per guidelines included within the act.
