XENIA — The Greene County Sanitary Engineering Department received good news last week when it learned it was the recipient of more than $2.65 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds which is a portion of the $33 million in ARPA funds received from the U.S. Treasury and dispersed by the Greene County Commissioners last week.
This will enable the GCSED to begin work on several projects.
The Greene County One-Stop Permit Program will “ create a single portal (from cradle to grave), permitting solutions across all Greene County departments — including but not limited to Greene County Regional Planning, Greene County Building Regulations, Greene County Sanitary Engineering Department, the Greene County Engineer, Greene County Public Health, and other various agencies,” said Jason Tincu, director.
“Currently, if a home owner or business owner applies for a permit, they have to go to all the various agencies to apply,” he said. “With a virtual platform, they can still apply for all of their permits but this will put them under one singular process. (Development director) Eric Henry and I are going to be co-leaders for this county initiative. It will take every bit of a year to get underway, it’s pretty complex. What kind of software platform we get or if we get a customized system that can do it.”
The department will use $700,000 for this project.
“We’re going to hire a consultant, craft some bid documents, and find the appropriate software,” said County Administrator Brandon Huddleson.
The GCSED Communications System Upgrade is basically a complete upgrade of the current communication infrastructure.
“This infrastructure supports our SCADA system. SCADA allows us to manage the utility, ensure service levels and capacity, protect the environment, minimize risk, and control cost,” Tincu said. “The project is currently under design. It will upgrade our existing infrastructure which is over 20 years old. We are replacing outdated technology with new state-of-the-art stuff,” Tincu explained.
Part of the communications upgrade includes a PLC Upgrade Project (SCADA) receiving $225,000 in funding; Radio Systems Upgrade (SCADA) receiving $1,350,000 in funding; and Well Field PLC Upgrade Project (SCADA) receiving $360,000 in funding.
“We are upgrading our radio equipment throughout our systems so we can communicate to all our remote assists and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) at the water plant that communicates to all of our water towers and reports back to the plant and lets us know their status,” said Tincu, who said is grateful to the Greene County Commissioners for the disbursement of ARPA funds for these projects.
“We will be touching so many lives in Greene County through these projects,” he said.