LR board gets look at covid aid plans
Drainage work, housing make list
Members of the Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday were given a proposed road map for how to use about $6.3 million of the money that remains symbolically unallocated from the first tranche of direct aid the city has received from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The most expensive item in the phase-two plan presented Tuesday would fund drainage improvements. The second-largest spending category would address housing and homelessness.
The city is set to receive $37.7 million from the federal covid-19 rescue package. Half of the sum, or nearly $19 million, was received in May, and the second half is expected to be disbursed next year.
Congress approved the stimulus package in March. Little Rock’s share of direct aid from the package is the largest among the cities in Arkansas receiving funding.
The federal government has issued guidance for how recipients of direct aid — in addition to cities, they include counties and states — can use the money within several relatively broad categories.
Last week, Little Rock city directors gave the OK to a symbolic resolution that laid out proposed projects that amounted to roughly 60% of the first tranche of funding, or approximately $11.6 million.
Initiatives to be funded with the American Rescue Plan Act money in Little Rock so far include the acquisition of a new aerial truck for the Fire Department, bonuses for some eligible city employees and upgrades to technology and cybersecurity infrastruc
ture, according to the resolution approved last week.
City Finance Director Sara Lenehan explained the latest spending proposal — what Mayor Frank Scott Jr. at one point described as a phase-two plan — to city board members during a policy session Tuesday.
Equipment intended to address the city’s operational needs at public meetings during the coronavirus pandemic would be funded with $100,000 under the plan.
No money for water infrastructure was included in the phase-two spending outline. City directors had questioned a $500,000 allocation for the regional water utility Central Arkansas Water that was included in an earlier spending plan presented to the board, and the line-item was dropped prior to the adoption of the resolution last week.
However, up to $3 million under the phase-two proposal would fund the Swaggerty Branch and Yorkwood drainage projects, which would enable the city to pursue other projects, Lenehan said.
Efforts to support affordable housing sites and reduce homelessness would be funded to the tune of $1.5 million under the proposal.
Kevin Howard, director of the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Programs, called the preservation and production of affordable housing “one of the most needed issues” for dealing with homeless individuals and families.
Howard told city directors that projects in Ward 1 and Ward 6 have been identified for affordable-housing development.
According to one slide shown to city directors, the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Programs will seek to obtain an additional $4 million in available federal funding. The department is also set to receive $2.6 million through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but details on how those additional dollars will be spent are to be determined, according to the presentation. The slide said the outcome of the department’s proposal for the $4.4 million in additional federal funding will affect what city staff recommends doing with the $1.5 million housing-and-homelessness allocation.
Software and information technology upgrades for the city’s planning and purchasing divisions would receive about $821,000. The installation of broadband at the East Little Rock Community Center and Internet hot spots at various city parks would receive $337,000.
Lenehan said the parks would be spread over the city. She listed more than a dozen parks as candidates to receive hot spots, but noted the costs of I.T. equipment meant the city might not be able to serve them all.
Indirect costs associated with administering the projects would total $329,890.
Lenehan said the actual expenditures and projects associated with the plan will come back before the board for approval. The first reporting deadline under the American Rescue Plan Act is at the end of August and the city will be required to report on a quarterly basis, she said.
City Manager Bruce Moore at one point suggested it was the city’s intention to get a resolution for the latest phase of spending on the agenda for next Tuesday’s board meeting.