ARPA money still unspent

As Halloween nears, so does the anticipated date for final guidance on spending millions in American Recovery Plan Act dollars. The end of this month could bring the conclusion of a frightening tale of unspent federal funds.

The Auglaize County commissioners have been waiting on final guidance for months before spending $8.9 Million in ARPA dollars.

Commissioners have received requests for ARPA dollars from local agencies, including the Auglaize County Historical Society that requested funds for the Gary Log House as a travel and tourism project that was delayed due to COVID-19.

County Administrator Erica Preston said officials saw the need for the project but weren’t comfortable that the project was in the works prior to COVID-19. They opted instead to use general revenue funds instead.

Other offices and county departments want to recoup loses sustained during the pandemic.

“The engineer’s office had sent over some parameters of lost revenue, hoping that under the ARPA guidelines it would then allow for unrestricted funds for that lost amount. APRA requires you to look at the overall picture; you can’t look at department by department,” Preston said. “We are hoping that maybe they will change that, because you have to show a loss of revenue across the board.”

Preston said that was hard to show with a sales tax revenue increase from people shopping at home.

Once final guidance arrives Preston estimates the plan would be to start spending the money in early 2022.

“We want to see what all would be able to fit within the ARPA parameters,” Preston said.

In the mean time, Preston said since Ohio has its own ARPA fund, they have opened programs people can apply for at the state level, such as business loan opportunities.