11-14-22 BOC Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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VILA Life Springs Dream Center Request for Funding Pastor Dale Sauls and Pastor Daniel Owens presented the Board with a request for funding for the Life Springs Dream Center. Pastor Sauls noted that Life Springs Church has served the community for 42 years now and has multiple campuses. With all of the growth, Life Springs felt the church needed to develop a 501 c3 called the Life Springs Action Team to start a Dream Center to help with homelessness and mental illness and that Lee County could benefit from a center. The Life Springs center will focus on preventing human trafficking, education and therapeutic activities, and community building. Pastor Owens will lead the initiative. Commissioner Sharpe asked how clients would be referred out. Pastor Owens said that with their case management process, they identify the issues and work with individuals to assess their needs and refer them out to the appropriate resources. Life Springs is looking for a building for the center. Commissioner Smith asked if the County could use ARPA funding for the project, $500,000 over three years, and if the County also gets opioid settlement funding, how much of the settlement can we earmark for this project as well? County Attorney Whitney Parrish said we'd have to look at the specific services Life Springs is offering under the Memorandum of Understanding related to the Opioid settlement funds; however, there is no limit to how much of the funding can be allocated. County Manager Dr. Crumpton said the Board has set aside $ 1.5 million in ARPA funding for mental health and we could use $500,000 of it for this request. Commissioner Reives said this is quick turnaround and we've had other requests from non-profits that could not be funded because of the cap. He said there has also been no discussion about this request previously and it is a three-year commitment. The cap is in reference to requests from our general fund. Dr. Crumpton said that we've treated the ARPA funding differently, and gave $315,000 of the funds to OMI. We have had requests from other non-profits that were not funded, such as the Salvation Army Day Center, because of the amounts. Commissioner Carver asked for a point of order on the motion to table — can you discuss the motion to table? He recommended to vote no on tabling the motion to approve and to proceed with voting on the motion. Commissioner Lovick is concerned that there have been other non-profits that were capped and would like a little more time to review the request. Commissioner Sharpe supports the project, but supports tabling it to discuss it further. Commissioner Lavallee said this is a unique ask and the County has already allocated ARPA money for mental health and this ask meets the need. Project List BOC 14NOV2022- Agenda.pdf Life Springs Action Team, Inc Recovery Plan.pdf Motion: Motion to table the Life Springs Dream Center Request for Funding. Mover: Robert Reives For: 3 - Robert Reives, Cameron Sharpe, Mark Lovick Against: 4 - Arianna Lavallee, Dr. Andre Knecht, Kirk Smith, Bill Carver Motion Result: Failed Motion: Motion to allocate $500,000 in ARPA funding to the Life Springs Dream Center. Mover: Arianna Lavallee For: 6 - Arianna Lavallee, Dr. Andre Knecht, Cameron Sharpe, Kirk Smith, Bill Carver, Mark Lovick Against: 1 - Robert Reives Motion Result: Passed 6