The Clintonville Common Council voted to approve the ARPA Expenditure Plan at the July 14th meeting. This plan sets out the roadmap for how the City will expend the funds it has been allocated as part of the $350 billion Congress approved for direct aid to counties and municipalities as part of the American Rescue Plan Act signed into law in March. Clintonville will be receiving $459,599.62 and plans to use this funding to provide assistance to many different sectors of the community.
The passage of this plan is the culmination of dozens of hours of work over a three-month period that included attending many different virtual meetings and webinars hosted by various entities providing guidance and advice on potential uses for these funds, pouring over the 151-page Treasury guidance issued in late May, and multiple discussions with the Finance Committee and the Council. From the get go, the primary intent was to provide aid directly to the community. While many communities focused on eligible water, wastewater, or storm water projects, and there is certainly a need for those types of projects in Clintonville, the Council felt that the money would be better put to use assisting those individuals, businesses, and non-profits that were impacted by COVID. Roughly a quarter of the available funding remains unallocated but of funding that is allocated to the programs established in this plan, a large majority of it provides relief directly to the community.
Over the next 12-18 months, the City will be accepting applications for the designated programs which include grants for business licenses, utility assistance for certain residential customers, and grants for tourism, lodging, cultural, and performing arts entities as well as general non-profits whose mission involves responding to a need impacted by COVID such as providing food to low-income individuals. There will be an informational meeting on July 29th at 630pm at the Clintonville Community Center for anyone interested in learning more. The Plan can be found here.
The City intends to keep a reserve amount that the Council will determine where best to expend the remaining funds after seeing the results of the initial programs. These decisions will be based on the effectiveness and utilization of the programs created. New programs may be created or existing programs shored up with these remaining funds.