County lands $600K CDBG for health department

One more piece of funding

We have one substantial block of funding remaining with the Miller-Meeks funding. We have a lot of confidence in receiving that, as well. This $600,000 is significant for the Lee County Health department and EMS bay in Fort Madison, which is sorely needed.”

Garry Seyb, Lee County Supervisor Chair

LEE COUNTY – Lee County officials were notified today that they have secured a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant for the future Lee County Health Department/EMS facility.
The county garnered the assistance of the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission in applying for the grant more than a year ago. They were notified this morning by the Iowa Economic Development Authority that the grant had been awarded.
Lee County Supervisor Garry Seyb said it was welcome news as the board works to secure enough funding to build the $5.5 million facility.
“This positions us very well for a successful outcome to something we’ve been working on for two years,” Seyb said Tuesday morning.
The grant is part of funding that will be added to the $975,000 the county received from the USDA Rural Development office securing $1.575 million of the needed construction costs.
The county has also been given a 7.7 acre plot of land from the Glen Meller family where the former Iowan Motel used to sit on the city’s west side, about ¼ mile from Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center’s Fort Madison campus.
Seyb said that donation kicked off the county’s project and can’t be minimized against the other grants the county’s been able to procure.
“The Meller donation was an amazing gift from a family that’s been an important part of the county’s infrastructure for years. That’s what started this project and we'll never minimize that.”
The county is now waiting on one other substantial funding piece in a $2.1 million appropriation from Congress that is part of the proposed 2023 Ag funding bill. That funding was approved as part of the Ag bill at the urging of Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA). The funding would come from the USDA as part of the bill that provides funding for the country’s agricultural infrastructure.
That bill is caught up in Congress. It wasn’t part of the stop-gap funding measure that was approved last week. That measure ends before Thanksgiving and just provides funding to keep the government operational.
“We have one substantial block of funding remaining with the Miller-Meeks funding. We have a lot of confidence in receiving that, as well. This $600,000 is significant for the Lee County Health department and EMS bay in Fort Madison, which is sorely needed,” Seyb said. “This is just another thing that will build confidence in the board’s decision. We’re not looking at bonding for the building and, hopefully, we’ll get the funds we need to get there.”
The $2.1 million congressional earmark would give the county $3.7 million. The county also has remaining ARPA funds that have been allocated to the project and a fund has been set up with the North Lee County Community Foundation that is securing private donations to finish off the project.
County officials were hoping to bid the project this fall, but Supervisors put that off until Congress can work its way through the budget dispute and get a budget passed so the funding was allocated.  When that happens Carl A. Nelson, the project construction manager will put the project out for bid.
The county is also working on finalizing preparations for a new EMS facility in Keokuk. Property has been purchased and the county has created an urban revitalization zone where the current facility is located at 16th and Blondeau and carried an initial price tag of $1.4 million, but county officials are asking engineers with Poepping Stone and Bach to go back to the drawing board to find savings in the building, including going from a steel structure to wood, which is what the county did to reduce costs on the health department/EMS project.