Clark officials decide on spending of aid
A breakdown of where $300K of ARPA funding will go to across county.
More than $300,000 of Clark County’s allotment of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding will go toward the reimbursement of costs, the salary and benefits of the ARPA project coordinator and a cloud service project to benefit a county office.
The money is coming from $26 million allocated to Clark County from the $1.9 trillion ARPA that President Joe Biden signed into law in March. A total of $350 billion was allocated to help local governments across the country reeling from pandemic impact.
A portion of ARPA funds can be used for broadband infrastructure projects. Roughly $19,330 of ARPA spending approved by commissioners this month will go toward installing a cloud storage system for the Clark County Auditor’s Office, providing “remote cloud system service connectivity for daily operations,” the Board’s resolution said.
The Board also approved spending for reimbursement of premium pay costs for employees of Clark County, including 22 employees from the county’s Emergency Management Agency, Building and Grounds sector, and Emergency Operations Center, all of which were workers “performing essential work during the COVID19 public health emergency,” the Board’s resolution said. Premium reimbursement will total $31,611.50.
In addition, ARPA spending will cover the cost of the salary and benefits of the county’s ARPA Project coordinator, Mike Foley, who is earning $46,000 annually, through Dec. 31, 2024. ARPA funds can be used to cover administrative costs associated with the planning and implementation of projects that result from the funding pool.
Clark County received half of its allocated $26 million in March and will receive the rest of that money in June. The county will have until the end of 2024 to allocate money
for projects and expenditures. The deadline to spend that money is December 2026.
Prior to this week, the commissioners have authorized roughly $6 million in ARPA spending. That money is being used for the reimbursement to the general fund for pandemic-related losses in revenue, the reimbursement of employee paid administrative leave resulting from anytime between March 3 and June 2, the funding of technology for the county’s dispatch center, expected to open in 2022. Commissioners also approved ARPA spending for a stormwater improvement project for Enon-xenia Road to help alleviate flooding in the area and for a fiber optic project to service county-owned buildings.