KENT COUNTY, Mich — Residents, officials, and other community members had a chance to hear successes and potential for areas of improvement during the 2023 Kent County State of the County Address.
Remarks were delivered by Board of Commissioners Chair Stan Stek and County Administrator Al Vanderberg during an event at DeVos Place.
One of the big areas of focus during Thursday night's address was public and school safety.
"Another major investment in school safety will address what has been identified as the most significant point of failure in school safety incidents, including school shootings, and that is communications and enabled by over 2.8 million and Kent County ARPA funding. The sheriff is implementing an 800 megahertz radio safety system in every Kent County K through 12 public and private school building that chooses to participate," explained Stek. "The system is the first of its kind in the state of Michigan, and will enable schools to communicate critical factual real time information to first responders. And it will also enable our dispatch centers to relay emergency notifications directly to schools, such as the need for a lockdown of buildings, or the threat of inclement weather."
Stek explained that the Kent County Sheriff's Office would be adding six new contracted school resource officers, and that this year, the board approved funding for 20 new corrections officers.
Thursday night, county leaders also said a task force meant to combat human trafficking identified 35 victims and arrested 9 suspects between January and September of this year.
Officials also discussed embedding social workers into the dispatch center to assess the need for any emergency mental health assistance.
When it comes to ARPA funds, Kent County officials explained they've been invested into 30 projects in the county, after they received more than 320 proposals on how it should be distributed.
Another topic of note discussed was the Kent County Affordable Housing Loan Fund, which is getting ready to launch soon.
It is meant to encourage the development of more affordable housing in the area, by reducing the cost of capital for nonprofit and for profit housing developers.
Nonprofit lender IFF has been chosen to administer the fund and is now accepting applications.
"The fund, which was seeded by a $17.5 million Kent County ARPA investment, now stands at $58.3 million thanks to IFF's commitment to raise matching funds in the amount of $40.8 million dollars," said County Administrator Al Vanderberg.
Leaders say this will make a generational impact for families who need more housing than what is currently on the market.
