Dec. 9—Cities, towns and counties across the country are trying to close the books on American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The government agencies have until the end of the year to appropriate any unspent ARPA funds and to plan to have that money spent within two years.
The ARPA funds were part of a massive $1.9 trillion 2021 economic stimulus bill that included $350 billion for local governments to fight COVID and help prop up losses the disease may have caused.
In the beginning, the restrictions on spending the money were so tight, local officials had trouble finding places to spend it.
“Originally, it was given to help cities and counties recover from COVID. It was really limited to what you could spend it on,” said Washington Mayor David Rhoads. “They changed the guidelines a couple of times.”
Eventually, those guidelines loosened to the point where cities and towns could use the funds for practical projects.
“We used the largest part of our money for an improvement project at the waste water treatment plant on the west side of town. We had to make a lot of upgrades to meet IDEM and EPA standards,” said Rhoads. “We used $1.7 million of our money for that project. It provided a big chunk of the money for that project. I don’t know what we would have done if we had not had the ARPA funds to put into that.”
Even small communities like Montgomery that are hamstrung by undersized infrastructure took advantage of the ARPA funding.
“We don’t have the problem of spending any more money. We spent all of ours almost as soon as we got it. We spent it on stuff involved with our sewer project that we are trying to get off the ground,” said Montgomery Town Board member Mike Healy. “We received around $83,000. It helped. We are finally out for bid on the first phase of our sewer project. We had a pre-bid meeting and there were seven companies that were interested in it. We plan to let the bids Dec. 12. We hope to start in the spring and have it done in six months.”
In Odon, the ARPA money is also spent. The $300,000 going quickly following an emergency situation on the north side of town.
“We corrected drainage issues that were damaging the streets and some residences,” said Odon Town Board member Susie Roach. “The project we did in the Bechtel Addition probably would not have even happened without the ARPA funds, even though it was an emergency. If we had not stepped in when we did the situation would have deteriorated even more and made the cost significantly more.”
Emergencies for local government often come with painful financial consequences, but the truth is that with the ARPA funds in hand Martin County was able to repair some buildings and when they had to put together an ambulance service the funding was available.
“We didn’t have very much left. I think we got around $1.6 million. Most of ours went to the ambulance service that we had to start,” said Martin County Commissioner Paul George. “I would say we easily spent $700,000 getting that started. If it has not been for the ARPA funds, I don’t know what we would have done about an ambulance service.”
In Daviess County, the ARPA money was the cornerstone for funding the courthouse renovation.
“We spent all of our ARPA funds. It was $6.3 million. We spent it on salaries in the sheriff’s department and jail,” said President of the Daviess County Council Tom Schaffer. “That left us with a $6.1 million surplus in the county general fund and that was the money we used to pay for the courthouse improvement.”
After all of the big projects, there were still smaller amounts laying in city, town and county coffers. Earlier this year Daviess County allocated $100,000 to several small projects.
Martin County used the last $30,000 to purchase a used ambulance.
The Loogootee City Council put a plan in place to use the last of its money.
“We have $120,000 we have to spend or earmark by the end of the year,” said Mayor Brian Ader. “The ARPA money is going to pay for the Christmas tree and decorations associated with that. We are looking at giving the humane society $15,000, buying some speed limit signs for $15,000. Access All, which is a group supporting youth baseball and softball, is applying for a grant and we are putting $5,000 toward that. The rest should go to clean-up and development on a couple of properties we bought.”
The last of Washington’s ARPA money has also been appropriated.
“Recently we passed a plan to spend what remaining money we have,” said Rhoads. “It is going to economic development, improvements, quality of place. The council put some money, around $100,000, toward the Power House construction project.”
In the end, the ARPA funding did not wind up rescuing local governments from COVID as much as providing a financial prescription for more common ailments that needed to be healed.
“It was like money from heaven. It’s horrible it came about because of the need for communities because of COVID,” said Roach.