Giving away $104 million of money handed to you by the federal government might not seem like very hard work, but it is.
Guilford County staff and commissioners have been putting a lot of effort into how that American Rescue Plan (ARP) money is spent – and recently, in the last couple of weeks, the board has held two work sessions for that purpose. And now the board has scheduled another work session for Thursday, Aug. 18 to determine who the next lucky recipients are.
The work session will be held at 3 p.m. in the large conference room on the third floor of the Truist Bank Building at 201 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro.
At that meeting, the board will hear updates from county staff and discuss the best uses for the ARP funds that have been provided to local governments across the country purportedly for relief from the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout.
In February, Guilford County government sent out a “Growth & Recovery Request for Ideas” for the ARP funding and got back over 75 requests that amounted to more than $280 million. County Manager Mike Halford pared that down to $68 million in recommended projects.
So far, the county has now allocated almost $59 million of the $104 million.
On Monday, Aug.15, Guilford County rescinded the two and a half year COVID-19 induced state of emergency, so commissioner meetings are getting back to normal procedures. For the August 18 work session, the meeting room in the Truist Building will be open for in-person attendance for anyone who wishes to attend.
The county will still offer a virtual viewing option via Zoom at
https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1616221795.
The meeting will also be livestreamed on Guilford County’s Facebook page.
Copies of the work session agenda will be available at some point prior to the meeting start time at https://guilford.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.
You can contact Guilford County Deputy Clerk Ariane Webb at awebb@guilfordcountync.gov with any questions.
Any program that works to support the homeless and help them off the streets would make sense given the recent debate around the park downtown.
Votes have to be purchased with extreme care.
Federal funds, my eye! That money comes from TAXPAYERS! Washington is not just broke, but $30 TRILLION in debt. They can’t give anybody anything without first taking it from someone. Whenever anyone gets something for nothing, someone else gets nothing for something!