Wheeling Nearing End of COVID-19 Relief Money
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WHEELING -- The city of Wheeling is getting near the end of its American Rescue Plan Act funding pool, as most of the federal pandemic relief money has been obligated to various projects and programs throughout the city.
Members of Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night received an update from City Manger Robert Herron on the remaining funds in the city's pool of ARPA funds, which totaled nearly $29 million before council members began distributing the funds.
The available total is close to dipping under $1.5 million, officials indicated Tuesday.
City leaders have noted that there are two separate allocations of ARPA funds.
One pool of money is considered a Revenue Replacement fund for covering salaries for government employees and spending for various government operations.
Originally, that Revenue Replacement Allocation was $10 million. Another pool of money to be distributed throughout the community for projects that meet more strict eligibility requirements under rules set forth by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This ARPA-Eligible fund originally totaled about $18.2 million.
In recent months, council had pumped the brakes on spending with ARPA money because a significant amount of distributions had already been marked, and the remaining reserve of money had been dwindling. Municipalities have until the end of 2024 to obligate the federal pandemic relief money, and ARPA projects must be completed by the end of 2026.
"I wanted to provide a brief update on the status of the ARPA funds at this point," Herron told city leaders on Tuesday, noting that the numbers were reasonably accurate but could be slightly off, as he had not reviewed the final figures with the Finance Department this week. "But in the revenue replacement allocation, $900,000 remains. And on the ARPA-eligible projects -- and this includes projects that are on this evening's agenda -- it's $1,383,378, for a total of $2,266,378."
While the city may have much of the money in its coffers, most of the funds have already been obligated to projects ranging from millions of dollars in city sewer improvements -- for which projects are currently being designed -- to assistance for expansion of child care services with a $500,000 allocation to the non-profit King's Daughters Child Care Center. This money is already dedicated and will be spent within the next couple of years.
Of the total $2.26 million that remains, a significant chunk of it was listed on Tuesday night's agenda as a funding source for planned splash pad installations at Heritage Port and at the public pool in Warwood. Three separate ordinances made their way onto council's packed agenda Tuesday night for engineering services and installation of splash pads with a proposed ARPA distribution totaling $774,122.
However, concerns had been expressed by Councilman Dave Palmer during the previous city council meeting about how the items were approved by the Health and Recreation Committee without specifically being listed on the agenda as a topic of discussion. Palmer had also raised concerns about the fact that council members never publicly discussed how these splash pads should be funded.
Neither Palmer nor Councilman Ben Seidler were in attendance during Tuesday night's council meeting, but Mayor Glenn Elliott proposed that all three items dealing with the proposed splash pads be tabled for further discussion, and other council members agreed to put the matters on hold.
The mayor said he wished to clarify the issue in regard to what is procedurally correct.
"It was suggested that we weren't following proper procedure, but the vast, vast majority of ordinances do not go through any council committee," Elliott said. "I think there were 35 proposals on tonight's agenda under original propositions, and I don't think any of them went through a committee. It's nice to have that discussion at the committee level, but it's certainly not required."
The mayor said that out of an abundance of caution, he would be fine if the ordinances were tabled for future discussion on the committee level later this month.
"Just for us to get this process back in motion," he said. "It's probably too late in the year to get anything done for this season anyway."
The next city council meeting will be held on an adjusted date because of upcoming holidays. Herron reported that city hall would be closed on Monday, June 19, in observation of the Juneteenth holiday and on Tuesday, June 20, as well for West Virginia Day. The city council meeting will be moved to Wednesday, June 21, instead of on the third Tuesday of the month.