COVER STORY
ROADS TO RECOVERY
St. Lucie County’s government officials plan to use part of the federal funds to prevent flooding issues in Lakewood Park and at the Orange Blossom Business
Center on Okeechobee Road. The business center was underwater in 2017 after Hurricane Irma hit the area causing drainage canals to overflow their banks.
6
County governments allocate rescue funds
for infrastructure projects
BY ANTHONY WESTBURY
Here comes the cavalry.
One year after the federal government provided CARES
funding to help small businesses and individuals recover
from the financial shock of COVID-19, help is arriving for local
governments who lost revenue and expended huge sums on
pandemic-related services.
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, signed into
law by President Biden in March, is intended to continue the
nation’s economic recovery process. In addition to compensating
municipalities for lost revenue and personnel costs,
ARPA looks to the future and seeks to help local governments
harden their infrastructure. In the process, it is hoped such
work will breed improved economic growth.
Under ARPA, Congress allocated $650 billion to be distributed
by local governments to assist with public health costs,
negative economic impacts, replacing public sector revenue
losses, giving pay supplements to essential workers and investing
in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure projects.
Local governments had until May to create plans for distributing
this money; funds must be expended by the end of 2026.
The three county governments on the Treasure Coast have
received the first half of their total allocations, which eventually
will amount to around a collective $94 million. These
funds are for use in unincorporated counties and the numbers >>
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