Milledgeville exploring ways to spend rescue plan funds

The City of Milledgeville is set to receive millions in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and officials are considering where those funds should be spent.

“The really good thing about the ARPA funds is that we’ve got some time to plan the utilization of them,” said Hank Griffeth, Milledgeville City Manager.

Under the federal rules, the city must have a spending plan in place by Dec. 31, 2024, then they have until Dec. 31, 2026, to expend the money.

Previous pandemic-related relief packages allocated money to states who then divided it up to local governments. Because of this, Milledgeville did not receive the second and third round of CARES Act funding because the state put it towards the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

With a population under 50,000, Milledgeville is classified as a “non-entitlement unit,” which means the city gets the funds in two installments. In 2021, the government allocated $3,493,376.50, or half of the total. Griffeth expects the other half to come later this year, but the Federal government hasn’t put out any guidance so far.

The city has spent only a small amount of the funds so far. Last November, the city council voted to use some of the money for $500 bonuses for city government employees.

According to Griffeth, $2 million has been “earmarked” for improvements at the wastewater treatment plant, specifically an updated remote communications system. The city applied for $2 million in funding from the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Act through the governor’s office. The city pledged to match the state funds in their application if the governor’s office approved the request.

While the “final rule” of the ARPA legislation states that cities can use the relief money for “general revenue replacement” to make up for pandemic-related losses, Griffeth told Lake Country Today Milledgeville would likely not consider such a plan. “I don’t think that was the main purpose for our ARPA money,” he explained. “We will look at a portion of it for general revenue replacement, but it will not be a large portion.”

With time and flexibility to spend the money, Griffeth said the city is in a good place, “I’m happy that the feds are letting us have time to plan this expenditure.”