ELIZABETHTOWN — Money flowed, not quite literally, during Thursday’s special-called meeting of the Bladen County Board of Commissioners.

Numerous decisions were made and votes taken, all aimed at how to indirectly spend $6,355,865 in American Rescue Plan Act monies.

The board previously had agreed to use $5,606,307 of those ARPA funds to be put toward county employee salaries and the remaining $749,558 for broadband services.

Using that money for salaries frees up that money from the county budget, and allows the county to utilize that money under state guidelines, rather than the more stringent ARPA guidelines.

The board first approved spending $3,915,200 for:

— VIPER radios … $1.4 million

— COVID sick leave … $200,000

— Small business/nonprofit … $650,000

— Park paving … $500,000

— Health Department renovations … $800,000

— Tar Heel lights project … $40,000

— Parks and recreation gym/field … $195,200

— East Arcadia revitalization … $130,000

The small business/nonprofit category gave each county commissioner $50,000 in discretionary money, leaving $200,000 as the balance. But Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson had a thought about that money.

“I make a motion we give $200,000 to Bladen’s Bloomin’ for small business loans,” he said. “They can handle the application process and administer the funding.”

There was plenty of discussion, mostly focusing on whether the county would have any say in how the money was handled by Bladen’s Bloomin’, but in the end the motion passed by a 7-2 vote, with Michael Cogdell and Arthur Bullock casting the no votes.

From there, commissioners began allocating portions of the $1,691,107 remaining — as well as from their own $50,000.

From the remaining $1,691,107 …

— Ophelia Munn-Goins asked for $190,000 be reserved for East Arcadia Historical Society. The request passed 9-0, but additional information will be forthcoming.

— Peterson asked for $5,000 for a free county rabies clinic. That request passed 9-0.

— Cogdell asked for $200,000 in reserve for the Bladen Youth Focus, where Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy is located. The request passed 9-0.

— Cameron McGill requested $200,000 for renovations at Harmony Hall Plantation Village. That request passed 6-3, with Cogdell, Bullock and Munn-Goins voting against it.off Martin Luther King Drive in Elizabethtown. The request passed 9-0.

— Bullock requested $76,000 be given to Bladen We Care to help assist those individuals negatively affected by the COVID pandemic. That request passed 9-0.

— Peterson asked that $770,000 be set aside for three projects in the county, including a downtown Bladenboro project, as well as housing and an infrastructure project. The request passed 8-1 with Cogdell voting no.

From the commissioners’ budgets …

— Rodney Hester and Peterson pooled $40,000 from each of their budgets and asked to give $20,000 each to the Dublin Peanut festival, Bladenboro Historical Society, Spaulding Monroe and Boost the ‘Boro. The request passed 9-0, but a resolution will be required.

— Dennis Ellis and McGill pooled their entire budgets to give $20,000 to Bladen We Care; $10,000 to Harmony Hall; $10,000 to Bladen Baptist Association; $7,500 to White Oak Community Club; $7,500 to Tar Heel Dixie Youth; $5,000 to Tar Heel Fire Department; $5,000 to White Lake Fire Department; $5,000 to Tobermory Fire Department; $5,000 to White Oak Fire Department; $5,000 to Hickory Grove Fire Department; $5,000 to Ammon Fire Department; $5,000 to Elizabethtown Fire Department; $5,000 to Kelly/Rowan Fire Department; and $5,000 to Bay Tree Lakes Fire Department. That request passed 9-0.

Before the issue of ARPA monies was completed, Cogdell said a number of times he was not happy about where most of the money was going.

“I’m not sure we are going about this correctly as a board,” he said. “I don’t see how we are helping those people who were hit hard by the pandemic — isn’t that what this money is supposed to be for?

“We’re just funding historical societies,” he added.

Both McGill and Ellis echoed their perception of what the board was doing.

“Exactly what can we do to be helpful to individuals?” McGill asked. “How would we do that?

“I think by helping all of these organizations and projects, we are improving the places the community uses and will improve their daily lives,” Ellis stated. “I’m not sure how we could possibly administer all of the requests we’d get if we just opened it up to the residents.”

The board took a short recess before going into a workshop on the 2022-23 budget.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-862-4163 or cvin cent@bladenjournal.com.