News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County moving forward with the purchase of three acres for the county health department at a price tag of some $380,000.
The land located on Old Smithville Highway North. County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said the project has been in the works for several years.
“That money will be reimbursed back to the county or it will be used as part of our match,” Robinson said. “We will get credit for it. I don’t know if they’ll write us a check back for the land, but it will be used as part of the match for that.”
Robinson said the county had already budgeted to spend the money for matching requirements through American Rescue Plan funding. The land purchase part of five separate projects, with four set to help utility districts across the county.
“What this does, it’s not, you’re not spending $3 million, we’re opening up a, for lack of a better word, checking account that we can cashflow this stuff,” Robinson said. “This is a reimbursable grant, so we have to pay the money, write the checks, and then the money comes back to us.”
Robinson said that adhering to these accounting procedures will help the projects work more smoothly.
“That’s the ARP money that we’d already voted to set up and put aside for the match for the health department and the match for the utility district,” Robinson said. “So we’ve already appropriated that money. We’re just putting that into a line item where we can spend it.”
