City council mulls American Rescue Plan funds

The San Marcos City Council discussed how it wanted to allocate more than $9 million in American Rescue Plan funding during a special meeting Tuesday. 

The city council gave a preliminary thumbs up to operational uses recommended by city staff. Council only provided direction to staff during Tuesday’s meeting and did not officially vote on ARP fund allocations. 

Staff-recommended items moving forward include six listed to address public health response, three for water/sewer infrastructure, two to address negative economic impact and one to serve hardest hit communities — totaling $6,775,980.

The six public health response items address the city’s operating budget, chatbot for the city’s website, IT critical system upgrades, computer aided dispatch system/records management system, crime scene digital mapping system and HEPA air disinfection systems. 

The three projects aimed at water/sewer infrastructure include Bracewood/River Road stormwater improvements, stormwater improvements at older city facilities and  stormwater improvements at Hull/Grove streets.

The ARP funding is also recommended to address negative economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two projects aimed at negative economic impacts include various convention and visitor bureau programs and funding for downtown events.  

City staff also recommended adding additional human services advisory board funding to help aid communities hit hardest by the pandemic. 

The city is left with over $2.2 million in ARP funds after addressing staff-recommended items. 

In total, the City of San Marcos was allocated $18,101,483 from the American Rescue Plan funding. The American Rescue Plan is a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill passed through Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11. Through the ARP, the U.S. Treasury launched the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, which totals $350 billion.

The City of San Marcos received $9,050,741 on June 1 and will receive the remaining funds 12 months from now. ARP funds must be incurred between March 3, 2021-Dec. 31, 2024 with funds expended by Dec. 31, 2026. 

Director of Finance Marie Kalka said the city is working quickly to utilize the ARP funds to assist with the pandemic recovery effort. 

“The other thing to keep in mind in regard to these funds is that every indication from the federal government is that they do want us to spend it rather than later,” Kalka said. “So, we are trying to move as quickly as possible to assist with the recovery effort.”

To utilize the remaining $2.275 million, city staff also listed multiple additional considerations for the city council to discuss: Five for downtown vitality, three for workforce development, two for COVID-19 response and one for workforce housing. 

Council gave its initial approval to move forward with the five items to address downtown vitality, including a business retention program, training and professional development on small business development, funding for the Business Interruption Grants program with focus on touchless and air filter improvements, and downtown marketing grant campaign. The council also gave a thumbs up to a small business counseling program but asked to expand the parameters of the program beyond downtown and to reduce funding from  $600K to $500K.

Council gave its approval to move forward with the three workforce development items, which include public Wi-Fi expansion, vocational instruction to improve workforce salaries and temporary social workers to provide case management services. 

The councilmembers gave a thumbs up to items regarding covid response — a temporary grant specialist and funding for Central Texas Addressing Cancer. The council, however, decreased funding from $271,915 to $100K.

The council also approved an item for workforce housing — owner-occupied housing rehabilitation program — but not before decreasing from $1 million to approximately $570,000-$530,000. 

The council added an additional item to move forward with: $25K for Mermaid Society SMTX's upcoming events. 

Councilmembers also discussed if they wanted funding to go toward paying unpaid utility bills. The council placed the item on hold and will receive an update regarding utilities during an upcoming meeting. 

With the additional $9 million in ARP funding expected in 2022, staff recommends the remaining funds expected next year to be allocated, then give the city time to recover and see what continuing needs exist for the city and community. 

“The recommendation of staff is that the remaining funds that we’re going to receive in 2022 that we hold off allocating those funds until we get further down the road to see where exactly we’re going to end up,” Kalka said. “What services are needed as we get farther and farther into the recovery effort.” 

The city council will address ARP funding during its upcoming regular meeting on Tuesday. Items are on the agenda include approving the allocation of $9,050,741 in ARP funds, and amending the city’s 2020-21 Fiscal Year budget to allocate funds made available by ARP funds.