The deadline for applying for some of the $29.7 million in American Rescue Plan funding the city received in May ended on Friday, Nov. 5.
Greensboro will receive an additional $29.7 million in May 2022, and it is likely the city will go through a similar process of requesting applications for the second half of the ARP funding.
It should be no surprise that the line for the $29.7 million in federal dollars is long – 230 applications long to be precise.
And those requests total a quite a bit more than the $29.7 million currently available. According to a report from Assistant City Manager Larry Davis, the total dollars requested is $423 million.
City departments were asked to submit their requests along with everyone else and the 50 city requests alone total almost $102 million.
There were 35 requests in the “Economic Impacts – Assistance to Business” category, which totaled $26.8 million.
In the “Economic Impacts – Assistance to Impacted Industries” category there were 12 requests that totaled $40 million.
The “Economic Impacts – Assistance to Non-Profits” category had 61 requests that total $125.9 million.
The “Public Health/Housing and Related Services category had 36 requests that totaled $94.5 million.
The “Public Health/Other” category had 26 requests that totaled $17.7 million.
And the “Public Health/Public Safety Intervention” category had 26 requests that totaled $17.7 million.
Davis notes in a memo to City Council that 15 requests had already been removed for either being duplicates, being under $25,000 or not including the budget information that was required.
Davis states in the memo, “With the help of staff from a variety of departments, Budget and Evaluation will lead the review process, using the previously shared evaluation scorecard matrix, with the goal of presenting funding recommendations to City Council by the end of February 2022. This is a challenging and arduous task but we are committed to meeting this time line. With requested amounts totaling seven times greater than available funding, it is clear at the outset that competition will be keen and ARP funding will not be sufficient for the majority of applications.”
Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that the large number of applicants “shows that we did a good job of outreach and that people are engaged in the process.”
She also said that the City Council had decided not to accept applications for the full amount of ARP funding this year. She said, “We want to see what our budget looks like next year and don’t want to spend all the money at once. We want to spend it over time.”
Vaughan also noted that with the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Greensboro would be receiving more federal funding, but at this time it was unclear when that money would be available.
Free Money! Free Money! Free Money! Just falling from the sky like the Fall leaves.
It’s fine if that were all it was, but as you well know, every piece that hits the ground was shaken out of one of us.
LOL…more “free money”. Betting council already has their favorites to buy some more votes and take care of their own.
“Vaughan also noted that with the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Greensboro would be receiving more federal funding”
She apparently hasn’t heard that “federal funding” is just another way of saying “our money” that has been forcibly taken from us. The federal government has no money and can’t fund ANYTHING without taking the money from us.