Carson City Supervisors approved reallocating around half a million dollars of unused American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to road projects and the Quill Water Treatment Facility.
Around $40,000 was allocated to the water treatment facility from funds that had first been set aside from the Carson City nonprofit Night Off the Street (NOTS), which provides warming shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness during the winter months.
“We’re not sure NOTS is going to use all of their funds that they were allocated, [but] we haven’t gotten their final reimbursement request which is due Dec. 31, 2024,” Sheri Russell-Benabou said. “But looking at prior requests it doesn’t look like they’re going to use all their money.”
They are estimating the remainder left over will be somewhere between $35,000-40,000, but won’t know until the end of the year.
The final amount will be dependent on how much NOTS spent during the year, which they will then come to the city to ask for in reimbursement. The city set aside the ARPA funds for NOTS, but if NOTS does not use all of the funding, it must be put to another project before the end of the year or else the city will lose it back to the federal government.
Staff suggested reallocating whatever is left over from the NOTS fund to the Quill Water Treatment fund, which will save water user fees for the public.
“We’re basically saving a little bit of user fees on thew water side, and applying [these funds] there,” Russell-Benabou said.
Mayor Lori Bagwell clarified that the number is simply a placeholder, and $40,000 is simply being used as an “up to” amount. “I don’t want NOTS thinking we just took $200 or something from them that they cannot complete in expenditure,” she added.
Supervisors approved dedicating whatever funds remain to the Quill Treatment Project.
In addition, supervisors approved reallocating $456,837 in ARPA funds to the Transportation District 1-5 Projects.
The city originally allocated around $2.25 million for park restrooms; however, after contracts were awarded earlier this month, there was a remainder of around $400,000 left. In addition, there was an estimated unused amount of $9,300 from the city’s COVID-19 mitigation projects, and $47,270 from the Grants Coordinator allocation.
The transportation projects will include pavement preservation projects for ARPA District 2 and 4A, as well as two “new, relatively small” pavement preservation projects on Hillview Drive and Lepire Drive.
