Kaitlyn Clay, Staff Writer, [email protected]
The Harrison County Commissioners were pleased to hear at their meeting Monday evening that Allison Schalk, representing Harrison County school districts, had received a grant for $404,700 from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief fund to use to provide students throughout the county with better-performing internet service.
Congress set aside approximately $3 billion of the $30.7 billion allotted to the Education Stabilization Fund through the CARES Act for the GEER.
Schalk came to the commissioners in hopes the county would be willing to match $100,000 of the grant as they will still need more money in order to offset the total cost. With the grant money, she explained they intend to pay for the cost of hot-spot devices and internet providers for numerous students who attend North and South Harrison schools, as well as St. Joseph Catholic and St. John’s Lutheran schools. These households can then opt out when the free year is over or continue to pay for the service themselves.
“With the grant, we are allowed to pay for families to have a year of the hot spot or internet subscription,” Schalk said. “Portative Technologies and Mainstream (Fiber Networks) have agreed to allow us to purchase a set number of subscriptions through each of them, with agreement they will expedite their expansion process quicker. They would cover infrastructure costs, and we would cover the one-year subscription services for families.”
Schalk said that through this grant they intend to service 400 to 500 households.
Through the state grant fund, however, there are stipulations that require a capping of money to each family at $500, and both Portative and Mainstream are quoting this cost to be around $800 per household. The $100,000, if given by the county, would help offset this cost.
Commissioner Jim Heitkemper made a motion to move this matter to the county council; it was seconded by Charlie Crawford. The vote passed unanimously.
In other matters, Mel Quick-Miller, assistant superintendent of the Harrison County Highway Dept., gave an update on the work that is planned to be done on the Lanesville connector road.
The design work is around 60% done, she said, and is just waiting on environmental evaluations to be completed. It is anticipated that the reports will be approved by the Indiana Dept. of Transportation by spring 2021. After that, land acquisition, which will take six to nine months, will occur and construction will then be slated for July 2022, Quick-Miller said.
Harrison County EMS director Joe Squier also came to the commissioners’ meeting to ask for money to purchase a new ambulance at a cost of about $254,000. He also noted that a lot of other EMS groups are using money provided from the CARES Act to purchase ambulances and that could be a consideration for Harrison County if funds are available.
The commissioners unanimously moved for Squier to take this purchase request to the council and recommended he provide them with information regarding using the CARES Act funds.
The commissioners’ next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 5, at 8:30 a.m. at the Harrison County Government Center in Corydon.
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GEER funds allow county to proceed with internet service – Corydon Democrat - Corydon Democrat
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