Last week Plymouth City Attorney Sean Surrisi presented members of the city council with a resolution creating a simple plan for the use of the American Rescue Plan Act Funds.
The federal regulation requires a plan for use of the funds to be created by the City Council before the funds are used. The city attorney said, “This is not much of a plan, but it is a plan to get something on the books that meets the requirements to make a plan. We satisfy that requirement. The plan says we are going to spend the money for approved purposes.”
Surrisi said back in January the Department of Treasury issued a final rule that details the types of projects or programming that the ARP funds can be spent on. The city attorney said, “Our plan just says we will spend the money on appropriate uses with the idea that the funds still need to be appropriated and future uses would come before the City Council.”
Surrisi said some of the projects identified as potential uses include using $500,000 for the solar farm installation for the Wastewater Treatment Plant. He said there have been discussions with using some of the funds for some of the READI Grant projects. Mayor Senter, Councilmen Don Ecker and Robert Listenberger and the city attorney have been working with a committee reviewing the proposed projects and working to refine them before they are presented to the South Bend Elkhart Regional Development Authority. Some projects that have risen to the top will be presented to the City Council for discussion before city funds are pledged to the projects.
Another group including representatives from the Marshall County Crossroads Organization, United Way of Marshall County and Marshall County Community Foundation have been working on the public health improvement initiative called the Blue Zones. You will be hearing more about this initiative at your next city meeting on March 28th.
The Plymouth City Council unanimously approved the resolution creating the plan for the American Rescue Plan Funds.
