Local ARPA planning on hold for lack of federal guidance

In the wake of announcements about the dispersal of over $28 million in American Rescue Plan funds to counties and cities across north-central Montana little guidance has been issued by the federal government about how these funds can be used.

While some county- and city-level officials in the area have general ideas about where this money will be spent, few concrete plans are being made because so little is known about how the money can legally be spent.

“We know we need to be accountable for how it’s spent and we have not received very broad rules about what it can be spent on,” said Chouteau County Commission Chair Bob Pasha. “The last thing we want to do is be spending it on something and then have to pay it back. That would be a disaster.”

Chouteau County will receive $1.1 million through ARPA a press release from Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, said.

The release said the money is part of $1.5 billion the state received through ARPA that local governments can use to plug revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic and fund critical services that keep police, firefighters and other first responders working.

Pasha said he and his fellow commissioners have reached out to Congress and Gov. Gianforte in an effort to speed up the process of getting more guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department so plans can start being made.

He said the commission is hoping the money can be spent on infrastructure projects like improving bridges and roads but the few things they’ve been told it can be used on seem like big-city priorities, not very relevant to his community.

He said he’s also gotten inquiries from people in local volunteer ambulance and fire departments, and he hopes he’ll be able to help them out as well.

Hill County Commissioners have been contemplating possible uses of the it $3.2 million which they discussed at a recent Hill County Officials’ meeting.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said in that meeting she recently participated in a call that laid out some very basic guidelines for how funds from the American Rescue Plan can be used. But after that meeting, McLean and fellow Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said a great deal of unknowns still exist about how the money can be spent so for now they are just contemplating broad ideas until more guidance is provided.

During the meeting, McLean said the county will receive $3.2 million and she said she’s interested in using it for revenue replacement and had her eye on Beaver Creek Park, which she said lost a fair amount of revenue in lodge rentals over the past year and hopes that money can be used to fund some needed repairs to the lodge.

McLean also said she was thinking about replacing and upgrading the courthouse’s air handler that regulates air quality in the building.

However, she said, department heads will know more about what they need than she does and asked them to think about what else the funds could be used for.

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon said the city is more or less in the same boat, but its main focus will likely be improving the city sewer system, specifically, and addressing water problems generally.

Solomon said, ultimately, the Havre City Council will need to make decisions with the input of the public.

Blaine County Commissioner Miles Hutton said his county is also looking at water-related projects, but what little guidance they have gotten from the federal government has been unhelpful.

“The restrictions on it are really handicapping what we can do with it,” Hutton said.

Despite this frustration, he said, the county will practice due diligence when deciding how their $1.3 million will be used, but making any concrete plans at this point would be a waste of time.

“That’s time wasted unless you know you’re gonna be able to do something,” he said.

Liberty County’s commission is being even more cautious, with Commissioner Larry Hendrickson saying they were uncomfortable even discussing general ideas until more is known.

“We certainly have ideas, but the reality of it is that we’re not going to go anywhere until we find out that it’s actually spendable,” Hendrickson said.

Liberty County will receive $454,000 from the ARPA.