Half of $8.6 million in American Rescue Plan money received by City of Titusville

Last updated on September 1, 2021

On June 09, 2021, the city received the first of two installments of these funds in the amount of $4,303,596.

Per ARPA guidance, the City of Titusville is scheduled to receive approximately $8.6M in emergency funding to assist the city in its recovery from the adverse impacts of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

There are four eligible categories of expenditures for these funds:

• a) To respond to the public health emergency or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality;
• b) To respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID-19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to eligible workers;
• c) For the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the COVID-19 public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year prior to the emergency; and
• d) To make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.

On June 17, 2021, the Treasury released Compliance and Reporting Guidance which provides additional detail and clarification of every recipient’s compliance and reporting requirements and outlines the discretion the city has in utilizing these funds to best suit the needs of our stakeholders.

Staff is following this guidance in proposing the following initial allocation of ARPA funds per each eligible category:

a) Public Health/Negative Economic Impacts: $1,532,000

1. Utilizing an initial budget of $1,200,000, the Neighborhood Services Department will manage community and housing initiative programs to provide various human, social, and housing services to the those households impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of job loss; income reduction; economic hardship, or who have been disproportionately burden by the effects of the public health emergency. The Department will provide oversight of these community initiatives and through subrecipients and housing developers, effectively disseminate these funds into the communities hardest hit.

2. Downtown Farmers Market: Utilizing an initial budget of $332,000 the City intends to contract with the Greater Titusville Chamber of Commerce to operate a Farmers Market Token Program with ARPA funds similar to the how the Farmers Market was held in 2020 with federal CARES Act funding. Fifty dollars in tokens are proposed to be provided to Titusville households that have been negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic which meet eligible household incomes based on family size. The Plan proposes up to eight (8) market days between August 13, 2021 and December 31, 2021.

b) Premium Pay: $350,000 Staff has identified approximately 350 city employees who meet the criteria outlined in the ARPA language. These employees are workers deemed to be performing essential work during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain continuity of operations and protecting the health and wellbeing of their communities. Such workers include first responders and public safety personnel, sanitation, social services and other employees that had direct interaction with the public in maintaining essential services during the health emergency.

c) Revenue Loss: $0 Staff has not identified a loss in governmental revenue due to the health crisis as defined by the ARPA.

d) Investments in Water, Sewer, Broadband: $2,390,000

Water Resources – Four projects utilizing $1,800,000 in ARPA funding are proposed:

a.) Causeway Lift Station Improvement – This 50 year old lift station services the environmentally sensitive area near Sand Point Park and is showing signs of degradation which requires replacement with a new, duplex lift stations at a cost of $800,000

b.) Armstrong Chemical Addition Project – This project will enable Water Production to maintain optimum PH and Chloramir levels and includes construction of a permanent facility for the containment of chemicals, feed pumps and dosage control systems at a cost of $600,000.

c.) Backflow Preventers – This program will assist business owners in funding startup costs for backflow preventers which will protect the property owners water supply from contamination and comply with FDEP requirements for cross-connection control program standards. An initial funding of $100,000 to be administered via a grant program is requested.

d.) Grease Interceptors – A reimbursable grant program to help business owners offset the cost of purchasing and installing approved grease interceptor systems is proposed using $300,000 in ARPA funds.

Public Works – $590,000

Several Stormwater and Infrastructure Improvement projects serving the South Street target area are proposed using $590,000 in ARPA Funding.

External Auditing Verification – $31,596

Staff intends to contract with a third party auditing firm to provide program oversight, ensure reporting requirements are met and that ARPA funds are utilized in accordance with City Council direction and ARPA guidelines. A funding set aside of $31,596 has been allocated for this purpose. The above spending plan allocates the full $4,303,596 initial tranche of ARPA funding.

The remaining funding of approximately $4.3M will be received in the summer of 2022. All funds must be legally obligated or expended prior to December 31, 2024. Staff will use current City procurement, contracting and grant administration regulations and procedures in all programs approved by Council.

Each program or project will be brought before Council at a regular Council meeting for approval to ensure full and open transparency of the allocation of ARPA funds and implementation of approved projects.

Be sure to watch the Council Meeting tonight starting at 6:30pm

undefined