Big news for Lake County residents! The authorities have just made it official: $135.2 million in ARPA funds are now earmarked for various purposes. But what does this allocation entail? Let’s dive into the details and unravel the implications together.
Lake County Officially Allocates $135.2 Million In ARPA Funds
The $135.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that Lake County received from the federal government have all been properly allocated. The projects that were funded show that the Lake County Board is serious about meeting instant pandemic reaction needs and working on long-term, equity-informed projects that help our residents and local companies.
It took two and a half years of quick decisions and careful planning to figure out how to best support projects and programs that help our community solve problems and make Lake County stronger for future challenges.
Arrival Of ARPA Funds
After the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden signed the $ 1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act on March 11, 2021. This law was meant to help the economy and public health rebound.
All fifty states, counties, and cities in the United States got State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds from this law. When the time came, Lake County knew it would get ARPA money, but it didn’t know how much, when it would arrive, or what rules and laws it had to follow.
Within a few weeks, Lake County and other cities across the country learned how to use ARPA funds in the right way. It was announced that Lake County would be getting $135.2 million from the US Treasury, along with instructions on how to spend the money.
Staff said that this time was like trying to solve a 100-piece puzzle as quickly as possible by quickly turning questions into answers. “Pieces to the puzzle started falling into place and now we had the enormous task of determining the best way to allocate this once-in-a-lifetime funding to make the biggest impact possible for Lake County residents,” said Matt Meyers, County Administrator.
How To Find The Best Way
The $135.2 million in funds was now the responsibility of the Lake County Board. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to find a balance between meeting people’s current needs and making smart investments that would help people for years to come by paying for long-term solutions rather than short-term fixes. Keeping this in mind, the Board did these things:
- Allotted money to meet instant and ongoing COVID-19 reaction needs. There was still a big need for services that gave people food and housing. In June 2021, the Board quickly gave $1 million to keep the housing and food-sharing programs going.
- Set up the Lake County Special Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery and Investments to look at possible future projects and programs and decide which ones should be funded first.
- The deal for professional help with managing ARPA funds was approved. The US Treasury’s advice is complicated in many ways. They wanted to make sure that the money was being spent by a second set of eyes to make sure that Lake County was following the right steps and methods.
To help the new Special Committee, Lake County set up task teams with staff from five different types of positions that were in line with what the US Treasury said. Each task group looked over its main areas of responsibility and came up with ideas for projects that would meet the needs of the community. The five Task Forces looked into the following areas:
- Public Health
- Community and Household Assistance
- Economic and Business Investment
- Infrastructure and Facility Investment
- County Services Investment
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