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Golden Triangle cities and counties have either spent or obligated their American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to officials.
ARPA was signed into law March 11, 2021, providing federal funds to state, local, territorial and tribal governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the federal government’s extensive guidelines require ARPA funding to be returned to the U.S. Department of the Treasury if they aren’t allocated by the end of this year and used before 2027.
So, how much funding did the region’s counties and largest cities get through ARPA? What did they spend or plan to spend it on? And have they successfully obligated those funds before the year’s use-it-or-lose-it deadline?
Lowndes County
Lowndes County got just less than $11.4 million from ARPA, County Administrator Jay Fisher told The Dispatch Monday.
The county dedicated $2.25 million to a variety of nonprofits, including almost $500,000 for the Convention and Visitors Bureau to support festivals around the county.
Fisher said more than $2.49 million was used for “internal priorities,” including the courthouse HVAC system, $600,000 in onetime incentive payments to county employees, a drug testing machine for Columbus’ crime lab, a license plate reader cameras for the sheriff’s office and $246,000 in heavy equipment for the road department.
Roughly $4.2 million was obligated for water and sewer improvements in cities, towns and rural water associations.
Lowndes County also used $400,000 at the outset to hire consultants who advised and catalogued the county’s use of ARPA funds.
At the end of everything, there was still more than $2 million in funding, which the county used to repay its salary expenses for the year so it isn’t reclaimed in the new year.
Columbus
Columbus got almost $5.8 million in ARPA funding, all of which has now been successfully obligated, according to Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham.
The largest chunk of that is going toward $3 million watershed maintenance and improvements, which the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is matching for a combined $6 million investment.
Another $1 million went to Columbus Light and Water.
A further $400,000 was spent replacing a culvert at 10th Street and 2nd Avenue North, Brigham said Monday.
Another $800,000 went to bonus pay for city employees.
The city allocated $500,000 to combating blight by buying and fixing derelict properties, but $400,000 of that fund was eventually moved over to the equipment budget to buy high-speed scanners, police cars and vans, and an SUV for the fire department.
Instead, the city is using $6 million in other federal grant money for its blight program, along with $100,000 from ARPA.
The last remaining chunk of that after taxes was taken up by $150,000 on studies at the outset to determine how best to spend the money.
“It’s going away, but it was really helpful for the city,” said Brigham. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do this with just the funding we have.”
Oktibbeha County
Oktibbeha County received $9.6 million in ARPA funds, according to documents from County Administrator Wayne Carpenter.
The county has spent $5.8 million of its total, including $5.2 million on roads and bridges, $566,000 on public safety and $30,000 on public health.
The unspent $3.8 million is a bit more balanced, with $1.8 million allocated to road and bridges, $600,000 to public safety and $1.3 million to public health, though Carpenter didn’t provide a more detailed breakdown of what exactly the money would go toward within those categories.
Carpenter said the public safety purchases include things like vehicles and communication systems upgrades for the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office. Public health purchases included supporting the city of Starkville and East Oktibbeha wastewater projects.
His documents indicate that all funding has been either spent or obligated before the year-end deadline.
Starkville
Ward 2 Alderwoman and budget chair Sandra Sistrunk told The Dispatch Monday the city got almost $6.4 million from ARPA, which was then doubled to nearly $12.8 million with a state match, as it was all used for water and sewer improvements.
The city dedicated about $10.2 million including the state match toward wastewater and waterline replacements along Highway 182 and another $2.5 million including the state match to upgrade water and sewer lines downtown.
“(Those projects) sucked up all that and twice as much,” Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch Friday. “We were eligible for a full match because of how we used it. You’d be crazy not to. … I’m incredibly grateful the state made that match, and I’m delighted we were able to find a use beneficial to the community.”
While those projects aren’t yet complete, all that funding has been successfully obligated before the year-end deadline.
Clay County
Clay County’s ARPA funding totaled roughly $3.8 million, Chancery Clerk LaFrance Boyd told The Dispatch Friday.
Almost all of that went toward $3.4 million in road construction, paving and leveling.
“Our supervisors were in dire need of it, since the funding for roads we get from the state is very minimal,” she said. “… Once the supervisors sat down and started listing all their project in roads they just thought, ‘OK, we’re just going to do it.’”
She said the remainder was put toward “general obligation” items, such as the county’s operating expenses.
The last of it is currently being used by District 1 Supervisor Lynn Horton on improvements to previously unused roads now seeing far more traffic than they were designed for due to the closure of a bridge on Barton Ferry Road.
West Point
West Point Mayor Rod Bobo told The Dispatch Friday that the city got roughly $2.4 million in ARPA funding.
It was used for water and sewer improvements, repairing existing lines and adding capacity south of the city to make it more attractive to business and industry. A state match for water and sewer spending brought the total up to $4.8 million.
Anything left over was used to fund several trips to Washington, D.C., to apply for further federal assistance.
“Those have proved fruitful, we got a total of about $7 million or $8 million congressionally directed spending out of Washington as well,” he said. “That all used for infrastructure on water and sewer. We’ve got a verbal agreement as well, 95% done, for another $1 million for public safety to modernize our law enforcement department with metal detectors, cameras, things of that nature.”
The last of the funding is being used now for a small sewer improvement on Joe Bryant Road to ensure it’s allocated before the year ends.
News Editor Abigail Sipe Rochester contributed to this report.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
