Last week, the Navajo County Board of Supervisors approved a package for the spending of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds provided by the federal government.
The package, presented by Assistant County Manager Bryan Layton, explained to the board proposed projects to spend the $21.5 million allocated to Navajo County.
“The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 is an unprecedented opportunity for states, tribes and local governments to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and also address some outstanding needs. Every governmental agency in our region all received an allocation as well. This is an opportunity for the county to take a leadership role to develop some things that will benefit the entire county,” stated Layton.
The ARPA funding does come with guidelines for spending including the fact that it must be spent by 2024. The county is regulated to spend $10 million to address negative economic impacts and lost revenues and $11.5 million for projects responding to the pandemic in the way of outstanding infrastructure needs which can include broadband, water and sewer improvements among others. Reporting to the federal government is required.
Layton continued, “The issue is how to prioritize needs and remove barriers that are holding us back.”
Guidelines were developed by Navajo County administrators that according to Layton, “Would layer on top of the treasury guidelines and bring a regional and local focus that we want to achieve. Mostly, these projects need to be sustainable and not wither on the vine without continued ARPA support. We wanted to prioritize projects that leveraged other funding sources and that are partnerships with communities and nonprofits.”
Layton’s presentation showed the plan to use $18.7 million for county-wide improvements. This breaks down as $10 million to install broadband fiber, $5 million to support healthy families and continue COVID response, $400,000 to add resources to local business and development coffers, $2.5 million to update public safety communications and $822,000 to improve access to county services including additional web accessibility for payments and other services.
Also planned is $1.35 million in community partnerships. Snowflake and Taylor will be partnered with to improve their trail systems, Heber/Overgaard will receive funding to improve their senior center, the Kayenta public safety departments will receive funding to improve their emergency response times and efficiency. The Winslow Library will also receive $200,000 toward their improvement projects, which may include the building of a new facility.
The board also approved a motion to select WANRack, LLC as the fiber optic network provider for Navajo County. This is another step in the application process for the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) Arizona Broadband Development Grant.
Deputy County Attorney Jason Moore said, “This is seeking out to not only bring broadband to those where it hasn’t existed but also to make it more affordable.”
Next on the agenda was the adoption of a resolution supporting the grant application submittal to the ACA for the purpose of completing the middle mile broadband network including WANRack, LLC as a partner and further authorizing county matching funds not to exceed $9 million. The award of the grant will take place in February and Navajo County Manager Glenn Kephart is optimistic about the outcome.
He said, “We are estimating this project to be about $20 million. We are asking the ACA for just short of $10 million which is the maximum award. We have such a strong project that we believe it is worthy of the grant. Some of the strength is the support of all six of our towns and cities, a letter of support from the Navajo Nation, our healthcare facilities, Northland Pioneer College and our public safety organizations including fire districts and law enforcement.”
The ARPA funds are a response to the COVID-19 endemic that is still presenting itself globally as well as in Navajo County.
