The Electric City council is prioritizing how they would like to spend $278,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
City Clerk Peggy Nevsimal told the council at their Oct 12 meeting that the guidance “is really loosey goosey” on how the money can be spent and how the city needs to report its spending.
She and city engineer Steven Nelson, she said, have never seen money that is so “unstructured” regarding how to spend it, but there still must be a record of how they intend to use the money and how they ultimately do spend it.
The city has received half of the $278,000 so far, and will receive the other half in 2022.
Nevsimal would like to have a plan for the money from the council before drawing up the city’s 2022 budget, although the money doesn’t need to be spent until 2026.
Items the council discussed spending the money on include a sewer lining, a street sweeper, a fire truck, adjustments to their pedestrian trail project that would stretch from Coulee Playland to Banks Lake Park, the animal control project being developed between local area towns, and recovering $16,000 in lost late fee revenue suffered by the city as it has been prohibited from charging utility bill late fees under state emergency restrictions.
Councilmember Bob Rupe stressed the importance of the city of Grand Coulee’s ambulance service, which extends to other local cities, and suggested contributing money toward that cost.
The city of Grand Coulee already approved spending ARPA money towards their ambulance service, and so additional contributions may not be necessary.
“Do your homework,” Nevsimal told the council about listing their priorities for the money. “If you want to add anything else, the sky’s the limit, but we do have a big finite amount of money, so don’t go hog wild.”
The council intends to approve a more official list of how to spend the ARPA money at a future council meeting, with their next meeting scheduled for Nov. 9 at 6 p.m.
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