City Council starts spending ARPA money

Dec. 3—The Terre Haute City Council on Thursday began spending the federal government's ARPA money, approving spending nearly $5 million of the close to $35.9 million it has received to cover COVID-19 related expenses. But it spent the bulk of its three-plus-hour session hearing debate on a Special Ordinance seeking to rezone a property in Farrington Grove for a center for the Next Step Foundation.

Resolution 16 was approved by the Council unanimously, to establish a plan for the use of American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds. Special Ordinance 44 updating previous special ordinances to pay city employees additional money was also approved unanimously, and Appropriation 22 was approved to spend $4,995,610 in ARPA money on various costs, such as police and fire department overtime and bonuses for working during the pandemic.

It also covered defibrillators purchased to offset COVID-19 that was originally supposed to be covered by the CARES Act until a rule change made the equipment ineligible for the money.

"We had a lot of end-of-the-year business that we do every December to make things whole, but the ARPA was a separate piece of what we were trying to do tonight — it was our first bite at that apple, if you will," said Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett. "We have nearly $36 million that we're going to spend over the next few years, and tonight we spent almost $5 million of that on a variety of things that will pay us back for COVID expenses over the past almost two years, things like medical supplies and contractual services, equipment that we had to purchase, 99% of it related to COVID."

He added, "Then we had a thing I wanted to do for our employees, which was have the performance-based pay component. We're going to give each of our full-time employees $1,500 and our part-time employees averaging 25 hours a week a $500 bonus next Friday. I'm sure they're going to be excited about that. We wanted to reward them for working the entire time during COVID. We didn't shut down City Hall. We all came to work. That was important for me tonight to get that taken care of."

Of the defibrillators, Bennett explained, "We bought a whole bunch of hands-off equipment you use to revive someone whose heart has stopped. We needed them but accelerated that because of COVID because they're hands-free and you don't have to touch the patient, especially if they're a COVID patient."

When CARES Act rules were changed on how to allocate that funding, "We had that $343,000 bill out there for all this new equipment and not able to use the CARES Act money, so we're using the ARPA funding that's also intended to help with COVID expenses and that'll make our line-item bill whole with what we spent this year."

ARPA money can also be used for public safety, revenue replacement, performance-based pay and improving community benefits.

Special Ordinance 43 allotted $2.5 in a Tax Anticipation Warrant Loan for early 2022, down from the $9 million needed in 2017.

"Typically every year we borrow a little bit of money — in the past it's been a larger amount of money — to float us until we get our property tax money that comes in late May, early June," Bennett explained. "We go the first of the year with very little revenue and yet we have expenses. In 2016, we had a negative $9 million cash balance heading into that year. Now, at the end of next year, we'll have over $3 million in a positive."

Bennett approved of Special Ordinance 42, which would rezone property at 619 Washington Ave. so the Next Step Foundation could build more housing units adjoining the recently opened Recovery Cafe, which is part of a church at an adjacent address. But Council member Todd Nation pointed out that Next Step already has 10 rehab facilities in the area and more than a dozen local residents were on hand to speak out about the project. Even attorney Rick Shagley, representing Next Step, asked the Council not to vote on the ordinance Thursday.

"I don't know if it's as much about Next Step as it is about the concept of additional treatment centers in the community," Bennett said about the controversy. "There are quite a few treatment houses in Vigo County, roughly 30. People don't know what they are unless you live next door. Next Step has a variety of properties already in the Farrington Grove area, and people who live in that neighborhood want to preserve those homes and maintain it as more of a residential area and not multi-unit or addiction home like this. But overall we need more of these types of homes in our community."

He added, "I worked at Hamilton Center for 12 years before I became mayor, so I'm very familiar with the addictions world, how addictive some of these drugs can be. People who want help or are forced to get help because they got in trouble with the law — you want to help them. Throwing them in jail isn't always the answer. The goal is to get them out and get their lives on the right path."

Where the treatment house is located doesn't matter to Bennett, he said, but more beds are needed. "I support the project," he said. "I would like to see them do it. Where, I don't have much say in it."

Bennett plans to keep close tabs on the discussion.

"It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out," he said. "There will be a lot of people for it, people who are against it, they'll continue to have the debate for the next 30 days.

David Kronke can be reached at 812-231-4232 or at david.kronke@tribstar.com.