Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Officials seek input on pandemic funds
Millions in federal dollars earmarked for the underserved
NORRISTOWN » Montgomery County officials are looking for the public’s feedback on how to spend hundreds of millions in federal pandemic recovery funds.
The county commissioners heard a presentation Thursday morning on the recent release of a draft pandemic plan, and a call for public input.
“We engaged in a 10-month community engagement process, employing town halls, surveys,
and community conversations, that collectively established a process that is community-informed, transparent, equitable and accessible,” said Tom Bonner, the county’s Recovery Officer.
In March 2021 the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 issued $1.9 trillion in stimulus funds nationwide, of which Montgomery County received $161.4 million that must be spent
by the end of 2026.
In August 2021 the county began planning ways to determine how to allocate that funding, standing up the recovery office to vet those applications, and in February the commissioners heard an update on the eligibility requirements for those projects, followed in May by an announcement from Bonner that the county had received over 400 requests
seeking more than $1 billion in uses for that funding.
On July 19 the county released a draft recovery plan outlining preliminary goals identified by the community and fitting the allowable uses for the $161.4 million received in federal pandemic recovery funds. The feedback window for that plan opened this week, Bonner told the county commis
sioners on Thursday morning, outlining the priorities set forth in the plan and how members of the public can give input.
“We also established priorities for investments in keeping with the funding guidance, that directly support communities hit hardest by the pandemic, that are transformative, and that take advantage of the onetime, large-scale nature of this funding, that respond directly to the impact of the pandemic, or issues that were made more severe by the pandemic,” Bonner said.
The draft plan calls for spending the $161.4 million in federal pandemic funds on a total of 110 projects, out of 426 submitted, and vetted by a total of 30 county recovery office staff based on public feedback received so far.
“The magnitude of the submissions was a great problem to have, resulting in the county needing to choose between excellent projects,” Bonner said.
Of that total, the draft plan allocates $32.4 million to housing projects, including new construction and short-term transition housing, an additional $28 million to community services and facilities, and $25.6 million toward county operations, including pay for essential workers, with smaller allocations earmarked for uses in behavioral health, economic and workforce development, public health, child care, food security and nonprofit support categories, Bonner told the commissioners.
Projects were vetted based on whether they would have otherwise occurred if not for the stimulus funds and were selected “with a lens of equity” aiming at the county’s areas that are most in need, resulting in a big boost to two areas in particular: “$20 million is allocated to projects stating they are focusing on work in the geographic area of Norristown, $14 million is allocated to projects focusing on Pottstown, and $7 million is allocated to programs focusing on both Norristown and Pottstown,” Bonner said.
“This is not to say the remaining $121 million does not also benefit Norristown and Pottstown, but does do that work with the rest of the county, and focuses on the same type of areas, without specifically identifying Norristown and/or Pottstown as their focus,” he said.
Non-county entities including nonprofits, businesses, and community groups would receive just over half of the funding, or $81.3 million total, and 33 of the projects funded are run by organizations with annual budgets under $1 million, which “represents a proxy for small, new organizations, that have come through this process and are now receiving funding,” he said.
And while the full plan has been posted on the recovery office’s website for public review, projects and ideas submitted for vetting this time but not funded will still be kept on record by the recovery office, in case any future federal, state or county funding is made available.
“We want to be sure that, as we have an inventory of
vetted and viable projects, that we use that to inform how money is spent in the future,” he said.
Public town hall meetings to field feedback on the plan have already begun, Bonner added and will be conducted through July 26 to hear more input from the public, and online comments can also be submitted via the recovery office’s website through July 29, with a final vote on the plan slated for the commissioners’ next meeting.
“We will receive all feedback received, and make adjustments as appropriate, and the final plan is presented for action during the August 18th meeting,” he said.
Commissioners Chairwoman Val Arkoosh thanked Bonner and his office on behalf of the board, saying they had been through “quite a journey to get us to this point,” and said she had heard the first two townhalls had been “quite well-attended.”
“We encourage people to continue to give us your feedback over the next few days, and we look forward to seeing what comes out of that process. I’m very excited to vote on this in August, so people can get to work,” she said.
Commissioner Ken Lawrence asked for more detail about the citizen review panels used to vet the proposals included in the plan, and Bonner said that process included selecting 30 reviewers from a pool of 80 applicants across the county who scored all applications based on criteria developed by the recovery office, and each reviewed at least 140 requests.
“Those people worked hard. They represent various
sectors of the community: various ethnic demographics, community groups, lived experiences,” he said, including some who had experienced homelessness, and others who were consumers of behavioral health services.
“That objectivity, and
that third-party that we created to make sure these projects were reviewed, by people outside the county — it will certainly be implemented with different models going forward,” he said.
For more information or to submit online comments
on the plan, visit www.montcopa.org/RecoveryOffice. The Montgomery County commissioners next meet at 10 a.m. on Aug. 18 at the commissioners’ boardroom, 425 Swede St. in Norristown. For more information visit www.Montcopa.org.