Linn County Supervisors to allocate first round of ARPA funding next week

Linn County Supervisors will discuss and vote on allocating $11 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding next week.

The board will meet to go over applications for the first of two rounds of funding. Discussion will happen on Monday with decisions on Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Many nonprofits and municipalities have applied for funding through the county’s portal over the last few months.

Next week, supervisors will have to decide which of around 120 projects from over 90 various groups they will decide to fund with this first allocation of ARPA dollars.

In total, the county will receive $44 million from the federal government. The county has already allocated $11 million to itself for lost revenue and administrative costs, a category allowed under the ARPA rules.

The county has received over $75 million in requests so far. City staff has checked ARPA eligibility for all of the applications and the board will consider comments from public forums held in 2021.

Supervisor Chair Ben Rogers said for this first round, the board plans to distribute $5.5 million toward requests relating to social services, public health, affordable housing and capital investment and the other $5.5 million toward sewer and water infrastructure.

The largest ask to be considered comes from the Cedar Rapids Public Library, looking for $6 million for a new library on the west side of town. Over 20 other requests asking for more than $1 million are on the county’s application list.

Rogers said with the amount being given out in this first round, those larger items will be more seriously considered later this year when they distribute the other $22 million that they expect to get in June. Rogers said the application process for the second round of funding could open in May and projects not chosen in the first round will automatically be considered in the second round.

“We have significantly more requests than we have dollars,” Rogers said.

Other large requests include over $5 million from the Catherine McAuley Center, $2 million from the Affordable Housing Network, $1 million from the Cedar Valley Humane Society, over $2 million from Foundation 2 Crisis Services, $1.1 million from Eastern Iowa Health Center, $2.5 million from Waypoint, $3 million from the City of Lisbon, over $2 million from the City of Marion, $2.6 million from Prospect Meadows and almost $2 million from Cedar Rapids Downtown Parking Management.

There are also large requests from the county’s own departments including almost $2 million from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, over $1 million from the Linn County Treasurer and over $2 million from Linn County Conservation.

Rogers said the process has taken longer than initially expected due to the unexpected influx of more money: $53 million awarded to the state by the federal government to assist with Linn County’s long-term recovery from the August 2020 derecho.

“We delayed our decisions based on the state informing us on the $53 million for disaster and COVID recovery. It slowed down this first process, but it won’t slow down round two because now we are going to keep moving ahead and inquiring with the state about when they will have the funding rules out,” Rogers said. “That’s why Cedar Rapids has made decisions before us because we had received millions in Block Grant funding.”

Cedar Rapids has been separately allocating some of its $28 million in ARPA funding, though the city and county also have a joint process.

Rogers said the funding rules for the Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds will be released in the summer and so some of the organizations that applied for ARPA funds, may qualify for the Block Grant funding instead as another avenue to get more organizations funding.

“There are projects that might be eligible for Block Grants, but that’s what we have to figure out,” Rogers said. “It’s a challenge and an opportunity. We can fund a lot of programs through ARPA, but also trying to get others funded through the other stream.”

“That’s the challenge with these one-time dollars. We have to say no to organizations but we can say yes to more than we ever have before,” Rogers added. “With these decisions, positive impacts will be felt across the county as we get dollars out in the communities and non-profits.”

Rogers said the county is looking to prioritize projects looking for one-time funding and the potential to leverage other dollars.

Willis Dady Executive Director Alicia Faust said the major influx of federal money in Linn County will be agency changing for anyone who receives it.

“It’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Faust said. “It will give everyone a chance to make everlasting change in the community.”

Willis Dady has a few applications in the portal, requesting over $1 million in total. The organization is looking to add on-site mental health care, make supportive housing more energy efficient and establish an employment hub for clients to gain stable income.

“We’re always looking at how we can do more than just provide shelter beds for a night,” Faust said. “We are ensuring clients are staying here and making sure they are getting resources they need to succeed.”

The City of Ely requested almost $3 million in ARPA funds for a drinking water treatment facility and sewer project.

Ely Mayor Eldy Miller said receiving any money from the ARPA pool “would be huge” for the community of less than 2,500.

“For small communities, it can be difficult to get any funding sometimes,” Miller said. “We have limited staff so applying for grants and having this support for infrastructure is difficult.”

Miller said the water treatment project is something that’s been on the city’s radar for years.

“We have a lot of iron in our water and that has a browning issue so we need the facility to help that,” he said. “Improving our water quality and having that facility would be huge.”

He added that he hopes the county can distribute the funding in a way to make the most impact across local communities and organizations.

“I’m hoping they can impact the most amount of projects and everyone gets a slice of the pie,” Miller said. “I wouldn't want to be a supervisor right now. That's a challenging job to allocate that funding.”

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