At last night’s Bloomington City Council Meeting city staff presented guidelines regarding spending American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds for Economic Development and Socioeconomic purposes. Assistant City Manager Billy Tyus and Economic and Community Development Department Director Melissa Hon made the presentation.
The city received $13.4 million in ARPA funds to be utilized for various purposes. City council approved a resolution establishing a spending frame in July. The frame allows $9.0 million for infrastructure, $2.2 million for economic development and $2.2 million for socioeconomic opportunities. Some of the ARPA funding has already been budgeted for specific projects.
Regarding the $9 million for infrastructure, two million dollars is being spent on roadways this year. $2 million has been spent to combine two phases of the Locust Colton Combined Sewer Project and $1 million for the East Street Hydrology study. City staff is proposing $2 million be spent for roadways next year in the early stages of preparing next years budget. And $2 million remains to be committed to a special project or projects.
Last month city council approved $750,000 for a Downtown Streetscape Phase 1 Design Study. That project is being funded with ARPA funds slated for economic development. That leaves $1.45 million remaining dedicated to economic development. Last night Tyus explained to Cities 92.9 what staff is proposing to use that money for.
Tyus said, “The program being proposed for economic development would be a rehab program for businesses in our community in what are known as qualified census tracts. And so what that could provide are improvements for things such as accessibility, or facade work or awnings or things like potentially sprinklers, things to rehab businesses in our community. It’s also our intention to make the application process as easy as possible.”
Regarding the $2.2 million dedicated to socioeconomic opportunities the city has committed $150,000 to a mobile health unit leaving $2.05 million available. Tyus also summed up what staff is proposing to use these funds for.
Tyus stated, “We are proposing two different programs under this socioeconomic category. One would be for housing rehabilitation. … We will provide funding the people in our community, we proposed targeting the west end community, for home improvement, things potentially such as painting or windows or porch repair or roofs or those same kind of things that really improve the local housing stock.”
“The other program that we are proposing would be grants to not for profit organizations to provide for needs that have been identified as part of our community health survey and also as part of our comprehensive plan. There has been extensive public input through those two plans so we would provide potentially grants for up to $150,000 … to provide certain services,” Tyson said.
