County update concerning use of ARPA funds

Smith County Commissioners handled several agenda items on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, including an update on current American Rescue Plan Act water and wastewater projects for the county.
The projects were at the top of the list of ARPA-funded items on the county’s to-do list and County Judge Neal Franklin said the court was interested in updates on projects.
Chuck Demaree, president of Star Mountain Water Supply Corporation in Winona spoke about his company’s use of funds as they pertain to drilling water wells in Winona.
Demaree said Star Mountain received a $1.2 million ARPA grant which remains in a Winona bank.
“Our goal was to find land and water (before spending any of the funds),’’ he said, adding the company acquired option agreements on two parcels of land only to discover there was iron bacteria infecting the water found.
“We then moved about 500 feet over from the second well we drilled, hit water at about 480 feet and we are in the process of pumping samples hoping to get good water from that,’’ Demaree said, adding it would be determined at that time if a well could be successfully drilled and wouldn’t contain iron bacteria. However, this particular well would be an engineering challenge because it would require more that two miles of pipeline to join the main water line in Winona.
“We are still OK on our deadline, which I set for the end of December,’’ he told commissioners.
“That’s one of our main concerns,’’ Franklin said, referring to entities meeting the ARPA deadlines.
Lane Thompson of the East Texas Municipal Utility District said his company was also busy seeking easements and rights-of-way.
“We’ve also been working with engineers on surveys,’’ Thompson said. “Overall, we are pretty happy where we are. Hopefully by next October we’ll have water flowing.’’
In other action commissioners:
• Approved a commercial crime insurance policy renewal proposal from McGriff Insurance Services. The policy renewal is done annually and this year’s premiums are for $20,700.
• Approved an agreement with CorEMR for electronic medical records software which is mandated for jail inmates. CorEMR has been in business several years and deal only with jail inmates, commissioners were told. The cost is $2.25 per inmate and will include a $10,000 set up fee.