The Finance Committee met 01/22/2024. During that meeting, they received an update regarding projects funded with American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) dollars.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The city received a total of $14,891,841 in ARPA funds and set aside $8 million of that for “internal and external programmatic areas of focus.” Those funds need to be obligated (i.e. under contract with a vendor, sub recipient, or grantee) by the end of 2024, and used up by the end of 2026.
The city created 6 areas of focus for those funds to be directed toward.
- Arts, Culture, and Educational Institutions ($500,000)
- Community Wellness, Mental Health, and Violence Prevention ($1,000,000)
- Social Infrastructure, Belonging, and Neighborhood Resiliency ($1,000,000)
- Local Economic Recovery ($1,000,000)
- Affordable Housing and Housing Support ($3,000,000)
- Early Childhood Development, Child Care, and Families ($1,500,000)
The city hired Booth Management Consulting to administer the funds, review potential projects, draft grantee agreements, monitor performance, and provide technical assistance to city staff.
City staff provided a couple lists of ARPA-funded projects and their status. The first list was for projects that had already been approved and were already in the process of being carried out.
The second list was projects that were still in the early stages of being created and reviewed prior to releasing Requests For Proposals or issuing grant opportunities.
Committee members and alderpersons in attendance had a number of questions regarding the various projects.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked if the city would be on the hook if an organization was given grant dollars but then not able to use them up by 2026. This question was prompted by a situation that had recently come before the Community and Economic Development Committee in which a recipient had had to return Community Development Block Grant dollars to the city after being unable to complete the program they had initially been awarded funding for.
Director of Community and Economic Development Kara Homan responded that there was no way to 100% guarantee a grantee would be able to carry out their program, but part of the initial evaluation process of potential grantees was to determine their ability to perform.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked how set in stone were the projects listed as being in the “development phase”. She wondered if an internal city project came up in which the funds could be used would there still be the opportunity to use ARPA funds for that project.
Director Homan said there was still time to direct ARPA funds to city-led projects, but eventually they would need to make a decision as to which external grants to award at which point they would be locked into contracts. She thought that would happen in March or April.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) asked about the $50,000 that had been designated for the integration of Neighborhood Watch Programming with the Registered Neighborhood Program. It sounded like they were just merging two programs, so he wondered what the $50,000 was needed for.
Director Homan said her understanding was the programs would not be merged but rather integrated so that they were more user friendly for the neighborhoods. Right now they are completely separate with the neighborhood watch program going through the Police Department and the registered neighborhood program going through the Community and Economic Development Department.
Community development Specialists Olivia Galyon added that they would be updating the messaging that went along with those programs to make it clear what the Neighborhood Watch program looked like and how it could work with the Registered Neighborhoods program.
Alderperson Doran asked how the $50,000 was determined and was told that it was just a placeholder. If the contract bids came in under $50,000 then the remaining funds would be reallocated.
Alderperson Doran asked about the $1.8 million designated for affordable housing and housing support associated the Transit Center. He understood this was just a portion of the overall transit center project and wondered if other municipalities would also be contributing to the housing associated with the project.
Valley Transit General Manager Ron McDonald said that they expected the overall Transit Center project to cost $26.8 million which $25 million coming from a USDOT grant that they would be applying for this year. The $1.8 million would then be provided by Appleton, and they had not requested any money from the other municipalities because the housing portion of the project was something that would benefit Appleton specifically. Per General Manager McDonald, this area of Appleton had a need for housing and a need for some of that housing to be affordable. Additionally, having an affordable housing component would improve the chance of receiving the $25 million grant from USDOT. The city cannot use ARPA dollars to provide incentives to developers, so, instead, they are directing it toward a specific part of the project in order to make the project as appealing as possible for a developer to come in.
[It comes across like there’s a lot being left up to chance here. They haven’t received the $25 million grant yet, and the city is putting forward $1.8 million toward the project in the hopes of making it look appealing to a private developer, but the money *has* to be obligated by the end of the 2024 and they don’t yet have a developer or a grant from USDOT.]
Alderperson Doran asked about the Neighborhood Leadership Academy/Asset Based community development Training that the city had designated $100,000-$150,000. Ms. Gaylon said this was “an opportunity for leaders within the registered neighborhoods to get some training on, for example, how a grant process works and how they could access grant funds through the city’s neighborhood grant program, kind of how to work through the […] lifecycle of a neighborhood when there’s organizational changes within the neighborhood organization. So different educational components there.”
She went on to say, “We were interested in, going out, again, for a consultant there to kind of run this Neighborhood Leadership Program and create both an opportunity for our current neighborhood leaders to be trained and have a lot of resulting documents and resources to share in the future as well so that there’s still continued benefit in terms of connecting these neighborhoods and helping people make those connections in the future as well with, like, those deliverable resources.”
Alderperson Doran asked if that was going to become an ongoing $100-$150,000 expense for the city but was told “this is a one-time expense, and then there’ll be materials and a toolkit that will be available for as long as they’re relevant.” Director Homan hoped those tools would stand for 5-10 years.
Alderperson Doran asked what they were planning to do with the $1 million dollars designated for local tourism recovery. Director Homan responded that the Convention and Visitors Bureau had created a master plan. The city intended to partner with them and use their plan for guidance on what the Cit yof Appleton should be doing to move the needle on local tourism recovery.
Alderperson Doran also asked about the $2 million available for Open Non-Profit Grant Opportunities for Early Childhood Development, Childcare, and Families and for Community Wellness, Mental Health, and Violence Prevention. His understanding was that they had not received any requests, and Director Homan responded that they had received no requests because they had not opened up grant opportunities yet.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) asked if there would be the option to use some ARPA funds, potentially out of the tourism recovery and violence prevention buckets, to deal with some of the lighting issues in downtown Appleton, or were they so far along in the process that funds could not be reallocated? Director Homan said there would still be time, but “the window of time is closing very quickly.”
Two members of the public also spoke during the meeting. Sheng Lee Yang the Executive Director of Us 2 Behavioral Health and Noelle Fenwick the Associate Director of Reach Counseling each asked the committee to release the ARPA funds designated for mental health.
Ms. Lee Yang spoke about the number of students who had attempted suicide, had considered suicide, had engaged in self harm, had depression, had generalized anxiety disorder, and who didn’t feel like they belonged here. She thought that if the city waited until the end of the school year to release ARPA funds for mental health “we’re no longer preventing; maybe we’re too late.”
Ms. Fenwick talked about how Reach Counseling provided essential services for sexual assault survivors but they had experienced a 70% cut in federal funding and stood to lose at least $420,000 in October of this year. They had a growing waitlist of potential clients even as they added therapists. “So, this really does come at a time when the need for our services is so important, especially in the light of the pandemic’s effect on mental health and safety.”
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1160198&GUID=73EE79E6-FD59-4305-B5BB-EF6B332ABDAB
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