Wednesday, November 13, 2024
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In a quarterly meeting attended by the county’s mayors last month, Henderson County Board of Commissioners Bill Lapsley had the floor first when it came time to describe how local governments were spending American Rescue Plan money.
Designed to help states, cities and counties recover from the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the grants were eye-brow raising big — and cities and counties had to do nothing to get them. They were just allocated by a federal formula based on population. “Would you say that number again?” Lapsley said when the county’s budget analyst reported the appropriation in March of 2021 — $22.8 million. In all, the county and its five municipalities received $34 million.
Sixteen months later, elected officials have processed the fact that the windfall from Congress had fattened their treasuries, and although there were a few mocking cracks about Biden bucks and Pelosi dollars, no one has moved to send the cash back.
Lapsley’s description at the Local Government Committee for Cooperative Action meeting of how Henderson County was using ARP money lasted much longer than reports from the mayors. While Laurel Park has decided how it will spend all of its grant and Hendersonville has committed around half of its total, Mills River and Flat Rock have spent only a fraction of their ARP money and Fletcher has appropriated none, the Lightning’s survey showed. Here’s the ARP spending status as it stands now:
Henderson County has made the most progress appropriating rescue plan money. The Board of Commissioners has given $250,000 each to Pardee UNC Health and AdventHealth to support infusion therapy for Covid-19 patients and earmarked $1 million for broadband expansion, $9.3 million for a new Clear Creek sewer plant and sewer lines, $500,000 for medical self-insurance payments, $4.2 million to renovate the Hedrick-Rhodes VFW Lodge 5206, $3.1 million for a new EMS station in Fletcher, $150,000 to upgrade an emergency radio tower in Mills River and $117,170 for Stryker power load systems for ambulances.