The Linn County Board of Supervisors awarded the first round of funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars it received from the federal government. ARPA funding is meant to speed up the United States’ recovery from the economic and health effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Linn County is receiving a total of $44 million in ARPA funding in two installments.
Round 1 funding includes $11 million for lost revenue and administrative costs incurred by Linn County and $11 million that Linn County is making available for other local governments and nonprofits through a competitive application process. That $11 million will be split with $5.5 million going toward affordable housing, social services, public health, capital investments and negative economic impacts from COVID-19 (Category A) and $5.5 million going toward water and sewer infrastructure projects in Linn County (Category D).
“I think this list for Round 1 represents a really good cross-section of the eligible categories and will make some significant impacts,” said Linn County Board of Supervisor Chair Ben Rogers. “What an opportunity to have federal dollars of this magnitude in order to give out to the community and impact organizations. I really look forward to the great work these organizations will do with these ARPA dollars.”
The Cities of Mount Vernon and Lisbon were among the recipients in water and sewer infrastructure projects to be funded by the county.
Lisbon received $1 million for Well 5 improvements the city has been exploring.
“ARPA Funding is huge because of all of the recent increase in cost,” said Brandon Siggins, Lisbon city administrator. “We currently only had approximately $600,000 allocated for this project through a bond that was done a couple of years ago. It’s really surreal to think about getting a grant for $1 million dollars. This is great for the City of Lisbon.”
The projected cost for the Well 5 improvements is roughly $1.2 million, meaning the city now has the money to fund this new infrastructure project.
The well will be located by Meyers Farmstead (the nature park area) and the new sports complex.
“We are hoping to get this started this summer,” Siggins said. “With this grant, we have all the funding we need for this. We may consider repurposing some of the money that is set aside to other projects if there are shortfalls on funding.”
Siggins said the City of Lisbon gave a huge thank you to the Linn County Board of Supervisors for the ARPA funding.
“I want to thank our City Engineer for all of his work during this process as well,” Siggins said. “April 13th was a great day for Lisbon.”
Mount Vernon received $1 million, which will be used for a number of sanitary sewer projects for the city.
“The biggest issue we’re tackling is for a line on Fifth Street Northwest, which has a blockage that settled causing the line to be a large septic tank,” said Chris Nosbisch, Mount Vernon city administrator. “We also have a few other sewer mains we will use dollars to repair, as well as looking at some infiltration and inflow issues we can make improvements to.”
Nosbisch said that grants this large rarely come around, and the grant will be beneficial to numerous citizens in the city.
“I can’t say enough good things about Linn County Board of Supervisors and this decision process,” Nosbisch said. “The fact we’ve just completed phase one of our wastewater treatment plant improvements and now have money to tackle a number of these projects before they would have been handled on an emergency basis is a real benefit for the city.”
Bertram also recieved $220,000 for a project extending water to City Park/Blains Crossing.
Local jurisdictions like Linn County are not required to distribute ARPA funding to other entities. Linn County has chosen to make ARPA funding available to other local jurisdictions and nonprofits through a competitive application process, which is allowed, but not required, by the U.S. Department of Treasury. Linn County and the City of Cedar Rapids collaborated on an online application for ARPA funding to make it easier for local applicants to apply for the funds.
Linn County will announce the Round 2 application period at a future date. All eligible applications submitted during Round 1, but not funded, will automatically be considered in the second round.