By Amanda Ensinger
Staff Writer
Prairie Township recently received CARES Act funding and at a recent meeting, the board of trustees discussed how they will use the funds.
According to Rob Peters, township administrator, the township received approximately $1.6 million in federal funds.
“The funds have been used for building modifications to include barriers and touchless lights and restroom fixtures, sanitizer and PPE, three vehicles, fire, sheriff and other COVID specific payroll, laptop computers and other technology upgrades for remote working,” said Peters.
According to the United States Treasury Department, CARES Act funds must be used for necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID–19, used for expenses not accounted for in the 2020 budget and that all monies need to spent between March 1, 2020, and Dec. 30, 2020.
At the meeting, the board also received an update on crime in the region and was notified that the number of calls police are responding to is higher than average. During the period of Sept. 23 through Oct. 7, the township had 73 total reports, 458 calls, one drug related offense, four breaking and entering, one aggravated robbery, eight thefts of motor vehicles with one recovered, 24 domestic violence, 11 suicide attempts and 29 auto accidents.
“County-wide the statistics have been up,” said Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Ronk. “The stats in Prairie Township are in line with the rest of the county and are higher than average.”
Ronk added that speeding in school zones has also been an issue. They plan to have more deputies monitoring the school zones and increasing their traffic enforcement to get people to slow down.
Ronk also said there has been some confusion in the township about firearm usage on private property. He said he plans to provide a letter to township residents regarding this issue via the township website.
