By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – Canadian County Commissioners agreed this week to distribute funds from a newly-awarded federal grant to the county’s family justice center.
Cardinal Point, which serves Canadian County’s domestic violence survivors, will receive $50,000 from the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund.
“This is a two-year grant for funding from the federal government to the county,” Canadian County Commission Chairman Dave Anderson explained. “It’s up to us to determine where we want to invest those dollars.”
The Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund was created by the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 to benefit members of tribal governments.
“These funds were given to jurisdictions that have tribes,” Canadian County Assistant District Attorney Tommy Humphries advised commissioners. “They were given to you because of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes.”
ARPA is a $1.9 million stimulus package designed to address the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canadian County was awarded $28.8 million in ARPA funds, some of which commissioners used to purchase property for a new county health department site and distributed to municipalities for local water/sewer infrastructure projects.
Canadian County Commissioners, at their weekly meeting July 17, voted 3-0 to allocate Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund monies to Cardinal Point because of the C-A Tribes’ presence in this county.
This will replace – not supplement – the $50,000 that commissioners have provided Cardinal Point through the county’s annual general fund budget.
Chairman Anderson, the District 2 county commissioner, recommended Cardinal Point receive these federal tribal funds.
“I thought that using this money met the criteria and intent of what it was for because it was connected to the tribes,” he said. “Cardinal Point offers services to the tribes and has a strong partnership with tribal leadership.”
Cardinal Point opened in January 2021 to help victims of domestic abuse, child abuse, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, elder abuse, and human trafficking.
Cardinal Point and its resource partners offer a welcoming, safe place where adult and youth victims can go when they are hurting.
“Our financial support for Cardinal Point is important to them,” Anderson told first-year commissioners Tracey Rider and Tom Manske. “They don’t have a lot of grant support, other than what we help them with.”
Canadian County’s family justice center does receive federal funding through Office on Violence Against Women and Victims of Crime Act grants.
Other operational funding comes from Cardinal Point’s annual Honoring Hope community luncheon in the fall, and donations from individuals, churches and civic groups.
Cardinal Point and the partnering agencies occupy a 5,100-square-foot space inside the Canadian County Children’s Justice Center, 7905 E Hwy 66.
Resource partners include Intervention and Crisis Advocacy Network (ICAN), the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office, Legal Aid, the Canadian County Children’s Justice Center, the District Attorney’s Office, and SafeCare.
Canadian County Commissioners dedicated $144,195 as “start-up” funding for Cardinal Point’s first operating year in FY21.
THIS AND THAT …
Among other business at its weekly meeting July 17, Canadian County Commissioners approved:
- Issuing $85,000 to the county’s Public Facilities Authority to purchase property at 215 N Evans adjacent to the Canadian County Courthouse and Administration Building. The site, north of the El Reno Post Office, formerly housed a bail bonds business.
- Interlocal agreements with Canadian County District 2 and District 3 and the City of El Reno for road surface improvements.
- A resolution abandoning part of the Reformatory Road section line, a right-of-way along the west boundary of Crimson Lake Estates Phase 2 near Lake El Reno.
- A contract with Major County to provide detention bed space at the Canadian County Children’s Justice Center in fiscal year 2024.
- Interlocal agreements with the City of Yukon and Town of Okarche to house prisoners at the Canadian County Jail in FY24.
- An interlocal agreement with the Logan County Sheriff and Logan County Commissioners to house Canadian County inmates at the Logan County Jail in FY24.
- A resolution to dispose of a Smith’s x-ray inspection system, which is being transferred from the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office to the Garvin County Sheriff’s Office.
Undersheriff Ward presented the weekly county jail report showing an inmate population totaling 212, with 188 prisoners at the El Reno detention center and 24 others housed in contracted counties.
The total count is up five from last week as 43 prisoners await transfer to state Department of Corrections’ custody.
