What to do with the remaining balance of American Rescue Plan funds became a talking point for the Marshall County Council at their regular monthly meeting on Thursday, Nov. 14.
Any money still in the fund must be spent by the end of the year, if not it must be returned to the federal government. Just what to do with the $180,000 left in Marshall County’s balance came up on the agenda with several possibilities.
Leading off the meeting Anna Keitzman and Brent Martin came before the Council representing Heartland Artist Gallery with a presentation and proposal for the funds. The group recently moved to the historic Montgomery Ward building and is in the process of buying the structure, giving them space to greatly increase programs and artist studios and display spaces, and even add a proposed apartment in the building for a possible “artist in residence” program in the future.
The project had received the recommendation of the Marshall County Commissioners as a possible place to use the remaining ARPA funds.
The facility needs a new roof and asked for the consideration of using those funds for that purpose as part of other renovations the group needs to undertake on the building.
The main concern of Council members for awarding that money to the non-profit was that the purchase of the building was in the closing process but had not been completed, and it couldn’t be certain the sale would be final by the end of the year. The Council was wary of awarding the funds to the group for that project without the sale of the building being completed.
Later in the meeting, Commissioner Stan Klotz came before the Council for several matters including a discussion of how the ARPA money should be used before the end of the year.
The Commissioners already suggested that $75,000 of the remaining funds be given in sums of $12,500 each to the county’s food banks.
Council President Jesse Bohannon told the group that the committee formed to discuss the distribution of the ARPA monies had recommended using the money for highway materials, saying, “That would be really easy to do.”
The Council will have one more regularly scheduled meeting on the year to make a final decision on a way to spend the funds or send them back to the federal government.
