Officials adopt $161M pandemic spending plan

NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County’s plans for spending over $160 million in federal COVID stimulus funds is now on the books.

The county commissioners voted last week to adopt their formal Pandemic Recovery Plan, after hearing about a series of updates to that plan since it was last presented in July.

“We will never have the opportunity again, I don’t think in any of our lifetimes, to invest $161 million in our community,” said commissioners Chairwoman Val Arkoosh.

“And rather than rush to spend it, as some have done, we took a very deliberate process, so that we could ensure that we used every one of these dollars for the best possible impact in our communities,” she said.

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 a county 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 county Recovery Officer Tom Bonner that the county had received over 400 requests seeking more than $1 billion in uses for that funding.

That plan was presented for

public feedback on July 19, and just shy of a month later, Bonner returned to the county commissioners to outline the changes made since the latest presentation, ahead of a formal vote to adopt the plan.

“This is only the last first step until we get to the next step, which is most of the work in making these projects happen,” he said.

Since the July update, Bonner told the commissioners on August 18, the county recovery office published an online survey that fielded 122 online submissions, heard from over 300 attendees combined at a total of seven townhalls across the county, and incorporated that feedback into a summary now attached to the final plan.

“That feedback engendered some changes, small changes,” Bonner said, before giving specifics. Based on multiple comments asking that more of the funding go to emergency services, the plan update shifts $580,000 that had been allocated for a call center for the recovery office: “The intent of that project can still be met, and it is substantially going to aid EMS services as it is,” he said. That $580,000 in funding will instead go into two different line items, with $325,000 going to “Pandemic EMS relief” and another $255,000 going to “Grandview Health Medic 151 Ambulance.”

“That allowed us to fund two additional projects, as compared to the draft plan: both for ambulance services, in Plymouth (Township) and through the Grandview Health organization,” he said.

Additional comments led to language changes in the draft plan: a project initially listed as “Business Improvement Districts in Norristown and Pottstown” was changed to “Small Business Support in Norristown and Pottstown,” while another line item listing “EMS Consolidation Study” is now “EMS System Strategic Planning Study.”

“‘Business Improvement District’ has a strict connotation that we did not wish to convey. Instead, we have named the small business support project in Norristown and Pottstown exactly that way, to make sure that it’s clear what that project is there for,” he said.

“We additionally renamed the EMS consolidation study to better convey what that project is for, the EMS system strategic planning study,” Bonner said.

The recovery office also reassigned a project that had been listed under their office, an “AAPI Community Needs Assessment,” from the recovery office to being managed by the Hatfield-based HealthSpark Foundation, after the office heard that project was already underway, he said.

“Those changes represent a zero change to the overall plan: we’re moving money within the same categories,” Bonner said.

The updated plan now funds a total of 112 projects out of 426 submitted, and all $161.4 million is allocated to projects that were submitted, roughly 12 percent of the over $1 billion requested from those applying. Total allocations under the plan remain nearly all the same as before the July comment period: roughly $32.4 million for affordable housing projects, $28 million for community services and facilities, $25.6 million for county operations, $18.1 million for behavioral health services, $14.4 million for economic and workforce development, $11.9 million to public health and safety — “that’s the number that’s changed from last time,” Bonner said, then $9.6 million for child care, $8.4 million for food security, $5.1 million for nonprofit and community support, and $5.6 million for public utilities and infrastructure.

The plan also spells out a priority to fund projects and organizations that had not received county funding before, Bonner told the commissioners, and those projects that were not funded will be kept on record for future funding opportunities. Once the commissioners adopt the plan, the final version will be published on the recovery office’s website, Bonner said, while showing the roughly 150-page plan document itself and how it details the list of projects, with information on each.

“This is both for the purposes of accountability and transparency, showing what was done, and this is also required by the funding entity,” to show how the funds are allocated and how those selections were made, he said, while clarifying what the recovery office does and how those projects were chosen.

“We also explain, because this was a key question that came in during the feedback, what a recovery office project is. And truthfully, as it says, we are facilitating projects that ultimately will benefit the community,” he said.

The next steps after the final vote will include finalizing grant agreements for individual projects, ideally in September 2022, then disbursing the grant funds, and working with the local partner agencies and municipalities to complete those projects.

“We will manage the quarterly reporting and compliance cycle through 2026, to ensure that after this period of performance is over, that our recipients are able to successfully comply with any audits that come through,” he said.

After the presentation, Arkoosh read a motion authorizing the adoption of the plan, that the “appropriate county officials” begin executing it and submitting the plan to the proper federal authorities in the U.S. Treasury Department to document the uses of the funds, before congratulating Bonner and his recovery office team.

“This office did not exist last January, and you were charged with creating an opportunity to use these funds in a transformational way,” she said.

“Man of these dollars are going to communities that historically have been underfunded and victims of bias, and other real challenges in the life of those communities. So I’m so pleased to see the way that you’ve gone about this,” Arkoosh said, adding that she’s gotten numerous comments thanking the county for its transparency efforts.

Commissioner Ken Lawrence added thanks to county COO Lee Soltysiak and Deputy CEO Barbara O’Malley and said he was impressed with how much work the recovery office had done since being established.

“You guys have followed through on the plan. You developed a plan, you executed the plan. I too have heard from people who have been tremendously impressed with how transparent this process has been, the level of community engagement,” he said, adding “this is not the end, this is the end of the beginning.”

Commissioner Joe Gale made no comments beyond requesting a roll call vote, then cast the only vote against adopting the plan.

For more information or to read the plan, visit www. montcopa.org/RecoveryOffice. The Montgomery County commissioners next meet at 10 a.m. on Sept. 1 at the commissioners’ boardroom, 425 Swede St. in Norristown. For more information visit www.Montcopa. org