By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – What to do with a lot of money was the impetus of this week’s Minnehaha County Commission meeting.
Since there was no meeting last week, commissioners had to approve the application for a number of grants, and South Dakota state senator Jack Kolbeck (Dist. 13) of the Senate Appropriations Committee told commissioners what the legislature had done this year, and he highlighted the more than $380 million that came to the county from federal COVID relief funds.
The monies he referred to were from federal relief legislation in 2020, but what he discussed didn’t refer to the third round of funds approved earlier this year.
Kolbeck mentioned that there would be a special session later to deal with those dollars.
He said that money already in had gone to unemployment benefits, the Highway Patrol, the Department of Corrections and other state agencies in the county.
He also talked about a variety of grants that were now available because of the one-time money. Those went to small meat packers, in-state college students, the Big Sioux River clean-up efforts, the Veterans’ Cemetery, among others.
In other non-COVID-related grants, the commission also approved the application for grants dealing with substance abuse, the Link triage center, research assistants and bridge replacement/repairs.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 20, at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
As always, there will be time available for public comments.
