City hopes relief fund guidance will include infrastructure

American Rescue Plan (ARP) distributions will begin arriving in Wyoming soon and the City of Sundance is eager to hear guidance on how it can be spent. On Tuesday, Mayor Paul Brooks shared his hope that some of it can be directed towards city infrastructure.

Brooks stated that he would like to hear information from the state sooner rather than later on how this next round of COVID-19 relief funding can be spent. He also has strong opinions on how it should be directed, and does not believe it should be used in the same way as the first round.

“It’s my understanding that the governor has a task force assembled to spend the next round of COVID-19 money and I think it would be a more responsible approach for them to kind of release the direction they’re headed,” he said.

Brooks said he has shared his thoughts with the Northeast Wyoming Economic Development Coalition.

“I said, I think we’ve created enough millionaires in business, maybe we should use this money to go towards town infrastructure. The example I gave is our new subdivision: we’re going to require curb, gutter and pavement and it’s going to be fed by a gravel road on both ends,” he said.

“They can say it doesn’t affect COVID-19, but people weren’t buying houses here like they are now before COVID-19. I think there’s been a huge social change.”

It’s not just Crook County that has noticed the influx of new residents, he said, commenting that, “I don’t think there’s a town in Wyoming, certainly not in this area, that isn’t feeling the impact.”

The City of Sundance is expecting to receive around $200,000 in direct funding from ARP; the first half is set to arrive in July and the second next year. Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz spoke to this when discussing the city budget, noting that, “They have taken off street improvements” from the list of allowable expenditures.

Lenz said that city staff had been hopeful the funding could be used to complete the remaining street projects planned within town limits. However, while water, sewer and broadband still exist on the list, streets do not.

Governor Mark Gordon announced last month that he has asked “a diverse group of stakeholders” to figure out the best way to invest the $1.1 billion in federal funding that is expected to arrive in Wyoming. As Lenz reminded the council, he has clarified three top priorities for the funding: health and social services, education and workforce and economic diversity and development.

There is no category for infrastructure, said Lenz, so at this time it seems unlikely that there will be grant or loan funding available through ARF for such projects.

However, said Brooks, that may not necessarily remain the case. He pointed out that the list of allowable expenditures virtually excludes every county commission in Wyoming from making use of the money.

Counties, he explained, don’t generally invest in such things as water or broadband, and will therefore be locked out of the funding. He suggested they are likely to say, “That’s a great program – we can’t use a penny of it.”

Infrastructure may not be off the table if Wyoming’s county commissioners provide their input, Brooks said. In the meantime, guidance has now been released at the federal level as to how the funds can be expended.

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, ARP, “continues many of the programs started by the CARES Act (2020) and Consolidated Appropriations Act (2021) by adding new phases, new allocations, and new guidance to address issues related to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Rescue Plan also creates a variety of new programs to address continuing pandemic-related crises, and fund recovery efforts as the United States begins to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Unlike the CARES Act funding that was distributed in 2020, ARP funding doesn’t need to be spent by the end of the year. Instead, Wyoming will have four years to spend the funds.