$12 million in covid aid on table in county
VAN BUREN — A committee that will decide how to allocate millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan money for Crawford County set some ground rules on how to proceed.
The Crawford County American Rescue Plan Committee met Thursday and established a Jan. 7 deadline for accepting proposals. The committee, which is composed of six members of the county Quorum Court, also discussed how it wanted to advertise that it’s accepting proposals for such projects.
Daniel Watson, deputy treasurer for Crawford County, said Wednesday the county would receive more than $12.2 million in American Rescue Plan money. It received more than $6.14 million in May and will get the rest of it later.
Mark Shaffer, chairman of the committee, said the money will go to projects in the county proposed residents, including elected officials. The county has to allocate all of the money by 2024, which then has to be spent by 2026.
Shaffer said as of Thursday the committee received seven proposals.
Committee member Raymond Harvey said after the meeting he plans to submit a proposal to study the feasibility of renovating the county courthouse in Van Buren. This would include restructuring the offices in the courthouse to better serve both the employees and the residents.
“I just got a passion for our courthouse,” Harvey said.
County Clerk Jo Wester suggested the committee develop a form for applicants to identify themselves and describe their proposals. This would allow the committee to understand the nature of the requests at a glance without having to go through all the other documentation that would accompany them.
Harvey supported the idea, saying the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District could help the committee create the form.
“They’ve reached out to the county to help guide us through this maze,” Harvey said after the meeting. “And so, we’ll just have them help us figure that form out, what needs to be there, and hopefully make it easier for us to filter through the proposals as they come in.”
The Western Arkansas Planning and Development
District is a Fort Smith-based organization providing information, support and services concerning a variety of fields to those in Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Polk, Scott and Sebastian counties, including community and economic development, according to its website.
The committee will meet again some time after the form has been created.