Clark County Community and Economic Development Director Ethan Harris said the technology will include cameras, speakers, microphones and other video conferencing equipment.
Federal relief can be used to invest in technology to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and promote virtual communication efforts, according to the commission.
The updates to the conference room will allow the development department to better video conference with business leaders with which they’re negotiating, Harris said.
It also opens the possibility of using the meeting space for future public information broadcasting and the streaming of government meetings, if legislation allows.
The technology is expected to be installed in the next few months, but the timeline for the project may be impacted by supply chain issues, Harris said.
The upgrades for the development department are part of a process of adding technology to at least one conference room to multiple Clark County government buildings.
“This is our test to see if this works the way we wanted it to,” Harris said. “We’re hopeful that this makes government more accessible.”
Buildings aside from the government center that may be included are the county’s courthouses, the public safety building and the A.B Graham building.
The Clark County Commission has allocated nearly $20 million in ARPA funding to multiple projects, $5 million of which has went to technology upgrades for county departments and other buildings.
In August, the Clark County Commission allocated $70,000 to the Clark County Re-entry Department to help with emergency transition programming, but also to fund case management software.
In May, up to $50,000 was allocated to new laptops and computers for the county’s Job and Family Services department for employees to work remotely as the department tried to attract part-time workers.
Another $100,000 in June was allocated to Greenon Local Schools to purchase and install an emergency radio system and a cellular booster system in the district’s K-12 building.
Last year, commissioners approved $3 million in ARPA dollars for a broadband infrastructure project to connect unserved areas in the county.
Another $2 million was approved for the installation of the Miami Valley Educational Computer Association’s (MVECA) fiber services for Clark County government buildings.
MVECA, based in Yellow Springs, offers infrastructure services, like fiber optics, to local government bodies. Its project for the county government buildings includes installing 170,000 feet of fiber optic cable fiber.
The county’s 911 dispatch center received $125,000 for emergency medical dispatch for the county’s Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) center, and less than $20,000 funded remote cloud storage connectivity for county employees.
A total of $26 million was allocated to Clark County from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in March 2021. A total of $350 billion was allocated to help local governments across the country reeling from the pandemic.
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