City council approves allocation of ARP funds

Last Monday, the San Marcos City Council met during a special meeting to consider the funding from the American Rescue Plan. 

The motion to consider approval for the amended allocation of the funds was unanimously passed by the council along with declaring an effective date. 

The City of San Marcos received a total of $18,101,483 in ARP funding. With that, $9,050,741 was allocated on June 1 and the remaining funds are set to be allocated at a later date. 

Previously, city council had much discussion surrounding the redirection of ARP funds to aid CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-San Marcos.

During their special meeting, council members went on to unanimously vote in favor of approving a contract to provide funding for the hospital and to declare an effective date. 

A total of $500,00 will be used from the ARP funds to help with, according to the item agenda, “retaining existing hospital staff and hiring additional staff, including nurses to provide care for patients hospitalized for the treatment of COVID-19 during the current surge of cases in San Marcos and Hays County.” 

Mayor Jane Hughson brought up the subject of contracts for items that required less than $50,000 in funding. However, the topic was not included in the agenda posting, therefore, the subject could not be discussed at that time. 

“One of the direction items that we gave was we wanted to get this money out in the community as quickly as possible ... but if we can’t talk about it, we can’t talk about it,” Hughson said. 

The next city council meeting is set to take place on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. with a work session held beforehand at 3 p.m.

To watch the full special meeting, visit http://sanmarcostx.gov/421/City-Council-Videos-Archives.