Lycoming County’s ARPA funds: $22M to ‘transform the community’
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With a total of $22 million in American Rescue Plan Act allocations to spend, the Lycoming County Commissioners invited members of the community to explain how the organizations they represent would use those funds to transform the community for generations to come.
The three commissioners, according to Commissioner Chairman Scott Metzger, have "sat and discussed a strategic plan to go about utilizing spending these monies."
"We all agreed that these monies would have to be spent on projects that would be generational. Things that would make a big impact in our communities. Things that would help large populations and at the same time would be a generational impact," Metzger said at a recent meeting.
Commissioner Rick Mirabito further clarified the generational aspects of the projects.
"Every person who comes to the county with a request has a different perspective on the definition of what generational means. Some people may not see a vision that other people see. I think it's important that if you are looking for something that you see is generational to find a way to explain how the allocation of funds in that category would change the nature of the community," Mirabito said.
He cited population loss and
population retention as the "two biggest challenges we face as a community."
"The population has gone from 120,000 to 113,000 in the last 20 years. That means that a lot of people who were in the workforce are no longer in the workforce," Mirabito said.
Some of the loss can be attributed to retirements, but some of it, Mirabito said, is from families with children not moving here.
"So, part of our drive for the generational perspective is how do we set ourselves up to be a county that experiences growth in the next decade," he said.
Noting how investing in housing would benefit those moving to the area for new businesses for years to come, Mirabito said, ""That's easy to see how building new housing frees up older housing and also is open to people who may not be interested in buying a home that's a hundred years old and can afford something more."
Members of Lycoming Arts were present at the meeting to make the case for acquiring funding in order to hire staff in order to expand the arts as a valuable economic and community development asset.
"We're at the point where our organization can do more to develop cultural districts and cultural trails. We're at the point where our organization is ready to grow," said Joy Walls, a member of the Lycoming Arts board.
Addressing the issue of how the arts fits into the generational model, Mirabito said, "So, there's visions about how arts in a community can change the direction of the community. The people who are attracted to the community.".
"I think it's important to educate the commissioners on that because that is something that comes from the development of arts...how it can transform communities," he added.
The county received the first half of the ARPA funds last May and is expected the receive the second half this May. The monies must be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by 2026.
According to federal guidelines, the money can be spent to support the public health response to COVID; to address the negative economic impacts that COVID has caused; to replace public sector loss; for premium pay for essential workers, such as first responders and hospital personnel; and for water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.
There are four entity types that are generally eligible to receive ARPA funds: municipalities, public authorities, 501c(3) nonprofits and privately-owned businesses.
In all, the county has received requests from outside entities of $54.6 million. County departmental requests add another $24.7 million.
"Currently we have over $79 million in requests for this $22 million," said Shannon Rossman, director of county planning and development.
Because of the disparity between what is available and what has been requested, Rossman stressed the importance of maximizing the ARPA funds by seeing if there are other federal or state grants that could be used for projects.
"If there is an opportunity for a grant at the federal or state level, and there is a good chance one of the entities could get that grant if we provided the match," Rossman said.
"Rather than funding the entire project through ARPA, what if we help them apply for a grant or what if we provided the match for that grant," she explained.
In addition to representatives of Lycoming Arts, Duane Hershberger, interim executive director Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity, spoke of the needs of that nonprofit as they look to expand their operations into other communities. .
He noted that with homeownership comes income for the municipality in the form of taxes.
Hershberger said the estimate is that $100,000 in county and city property taxes have been generated from Habitat properties. The nonprofit is now seeking to move into other areas.
Other projects mentioned by those at the meeting were: a new facility for the county coroner; rural broadband; and helping farmers.
Last year, the commissioners met with representatives of townships and boroughs to see what their needs were, according to Metzger. They also met with members of the water and sewer entities throughout the county to ascertain their needs, as well as developers and realtors to discuss the shortage of housing in the area. They plan to meet with representatives of the Early Childhood care and farming communities next month.