The Town of Highlands has decided to put its portion of the American Rescue Plan Act funds towards the Moore Wood Waterline Replacement Project.
Town manager Josh Ward updated the town board of commissioners on the project during the board’s regularly scheduled meeting last Thursday.
“The waterline replacement project is in this year’s budget,” Ward said. “That project is getting ready to start. Stillwell will be doing that for us and they are looking for all of the materials as we speak. Hopefully they can gather those together so they can get started on that soon.”
The budget for the project was $670,000. Ward said the town is going to receive $313,000 from the ARPA funds, leaving approximately $357,000.
Ward said the project has been on the Capital Improvement Plan for the past three years.
“It’s basically an upgrade to the line to a larger size, six inch ductile to give fire protection in that area,” Ward said. “It also closes a small gap in the line that will loop that line where if you have a break in one side, you could cut it off and feed from the other side.”
With ARPA funds having strict guidelines, Ward said this project fits the bill.
“The water and sewer projects have to be rehab projects for the funds to be used on it,” Ward said. “These funds help a lot so we don’t have to pay that full amount.”
Right now, Ward said the contractor is waiting on the supplies before they are able to get started.
“They are hoping to gather the materials from a few different places,” Ward said. “They felt like they were going to be able to do that. It is ready to go as soon as they get the material.”
What is ARPA?
Federal lawmakers crafted ARPA, signed into law March 11, 2021, with the goal of pulling the nation out of economic distress wrought by the pandemic by improving the country’s infrastructure and offering direct financial relief to families.
While the $1.9 trillion plan funded a third round of stimulus checks and several other tax relief programs, Congress appropriated the majority of ARPA funds — $401 billion — to state, local and tribal governments, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
“The state and local program was designed for short-term and long-term recovery support, including helping localities as new variants of COVID emerge,” U.S. Treasury spokesperson Dayanara Ramirez said.
What did North Carolina get?
North Carolina is slated to receive $8.6 billion in ARPA funding, which is being disbursed two ways.
“There are two pots of money,” said Jamilla Hawkins, chief of staff for the N.C. Pandemic Recovery Office. “North Carolina as a state received $5.4 billion for the state fiscal recovery. For local governments, there’s a local fiscal recovery.”
The $5.4 billion Hawkins referenced has yet to be distributed, as it’s a part of the fiscal year 2022-23 budget, which still awaits certification by the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management.
The ongoing OSBM budget certification process includes reviewing the individual budget plans of each program to which lawmakers allocated funds. Those plans were due Dec. 15, and Hawkins said it usually takes a few weeks for OSBM to certify.
When the budget is certified, the state will dole out funds to state departments and organizations in accordance with Gov. Roy Cooper’s recommendations for the money, which include expanding broadband access, fixing infrastructure issues and addressing housing and employment deficits.
The U.S. Treasury Department has been distributing the other tranche of North Carolina’s ARPA funds — $3.2 billion — directly to North Carolina’s 100 counties and 26 most populous cities.
The Treasury disbursed half of this money beginning in May 2021. The other half comes 12 months after the first payment.
The amount of ARPA money that counties received depended on population, according to a formula set by the Treasury Department, but was also adjusted based on other funding each community received.
The formula for cities’ allocations included consideration not only of population, but also population growth, number of people in poverty and housing-related variables.
County and city government officials will allocate the funds in their communities. All ARPA funds must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026.
What can ARPA funds be used for?
The federal government has rigid guidelines for what ARPA funds can be spent on. Every expense must fall into one of four categories: COVID response and adaptation, premium pay, revenue loss or infrastructure investments.
Examples of acceptable expenses, according to a state Pandemic Resource Office fact sheet, include fixing water and sewer systems, improving pay for essential workers and providing direct economic assistance to small businesses.
Each North Carolina county or municipality that received ARPA funding last summer was required to submit an interim spending report to the U.S. Treasury Department by Aug. 31, 2021.
These reports, however, only cover money spent through July 2021.
“Since then, (the U.S.) Treasury knows that states and localities have only increased their pace of budgeting and spending relief funds,” Ramirez said.
What each county received and what has been spent:
As of July 31, 2021:
Avery County received $3,410,241 and spent $0.
Buncombe County received $50,733,290 and spent $16,433.
Burke County received $17,575,650 and spent $0.
Cherokee County received $5,557,546 and spent $72,764.
Clay County received $2,181,490 and spent $0.
Graham County received $1,639,565 and spent $0.
Haywood County received $12,104,347 and spent $256,742.
Henderson County received $22,806,876 and spent $0.
Jackson County received $8,534,441 and spent $0.
Macon County received $6,964,996 and spent $0.
Madison County received $4,225,654 and spent $0.
McDowell County received $8,887,567 and spent $0.
Mitchell County received $2,906,582 and spent $0.
Polk County received $4,025,394 and spent $91,648.
Rutherford County received $13,019,597 and spent $0.
Swain County received $2,771,974 and spent $341,115.26.
Transylvania County received $6,678,883 and spent $0.
Yancey County received $3,509,691 and spent $952,606.97.
- By Christopher Lugo