By Michael Robinson

Top Picture: Still image taken from Uvalde County Livestream video

09-15-24

 The Uvalde County Commissioners Court voted at its Monday September 9th meeting to move America Rescue Act or ARA grant monies to shore up County Departments running in the red, specifically the County Road and Bridge Program and the Countywide Nutrition Program. At the recommendation of County Auditor Alice Chapman, Commissioners approved allocating $290,000 from ARA to the Countywide Nutrition Program and transferring $103K to the County Road and Bridge Department.

$100,000 was also transferred to the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office and $8,000 will be going to Midtown for technology expenditures.

According to Chapman, only $6 of ARA grant funds will remain in the account which resulted in her laughing and saying, “I usually don’t get that close.”

According to Uvalde County Judge Bill Mitchell and U.C. Auditor Chapman, the America Rescue Act funds are “going away”.

Judge Mitchell said, “And that has really helped us a lot in different areas, but it is going away. All those things that we’ve been taking care of; we’re going to figure out another way to do them.”

According to Chapman, after the fund transfers, only $6 would be left in the ARCA account.

Judge Mitchell, in humor, suggested the $6 should go to the Sheriff but Chapman recommended the Uvalde County Auditor get the money.

According to an article by the Associated Press, The Clock is Ticking for Local Governments to Use Billions ofDollars of Federal Pandemic aid, the article said, 

“For Gilbert and thousands of other local governments across the U.S., the clock is ticking to use their share of $350 billion in COVID-19 relief funds approved by Congress and President Joe Biden in 2021. Governments must obligate all their American Rescue Plan funds for specific projects by the end of this year or else return the rest to the U.S. Treasury.

 About 80% of all funds had been obligated as of March, according to the most recent data reported to the Treasury by more than 26,500 local, state and territorial governments. That’s right on pace to finish in time.

 About one in five governments reported obligating less than half their funds as of this spring, according to an Associated Press analysis, and about 3,500 had obligated less than 25%. That includes 2,260 governments that reported no projects, leaving it unclear whether they had any plans for the money. Some of them may have already used the money but failed to describe the purpose to the federal government.”