Chelan faces December deadline to allocate remaining $900,000 in ARPA funds

CHELAN—The City of Chelan was reminded that the clock is ticking to commit the remaining funds it received through the America Recovery Plan Act (ARPA), created in March 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. City Administrator Wade Farris told the July 23 bi-monthly city council meeting that it has until Dec. 31 to obligate the remainder of the $1.2 million of ARPA dollars it received.

Farris explained the four ways the city can obligate the estimated $900,000-950,000 in question.

1. Place an order for property and services or enter into contracts, sub-awards, and similar transactions that require payment. Preferably select projects, programs, or costs that have a low probability of being canceled or changed.
2. Enter into an interagency agreement.
3. Apply to certain personnel costs for positions that existed and were filled prior to Dec. 31, 2024.
4. Apply to legal and administrative costs associated with the terms, conditions, and requirements of ARPA-SLFRF. (State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds).

“We gave the food bank $200,000-plus, and they spent it very wisely,” said Ferris. “We need to spend the rest of those funds.”

Unobligated funds must be returned to the U.S. Treasury.

The SLFR program, authorized by ARPA, made $350 billion to states, territories, localities, and Tribal governments, in response to the pandemic and dispersed nearly 100 percent of those funds to more than 30,000 recipients.

City Clerk Peri Gallucci told the Lake Chelan Mirror that of the remaining city ARPA funds, about $700,000 is earmarked for the Washington Street booster pump and another $200,000-plus for the new Chelan Boys and Girls Club.

The city was not alone as the beneficiary of ARPA funds. Chelan County was awarded $4.6 million disbursed by the county commissioners to the following agencies and programs:

• Chelan Douglas Community Action Council -$162,500 to support the council’s expansion of its food distribution center.
• Chelan Valley Hope (including the food bank) - $277,900 to expand operations.
• Common Ground Community Housing Trust - $350,000 to fund the acquisition of land for single-family homes, duplexes, and townhomes.
• Malaga-Colockum Community Council - $160,000 to support infrastructure improvements to the Malaga Community Park.
• Our Valley Our Future - $109,250 to support the coordination and completion of three large-scale community initiatives related to regional housing; health, literacy, and outcomes; and early care and education programs.
• Seven Acres Foundation - $699,300 for construction of the new Community Center at Lake Chelan.
• Small Miracles Community Outreach - $33,750 to provide meals to children in the free or reduced school lunch program for meals during summer, spring, and winter breaks.
• Community for the Advancement of Family Education - $297,500 to support CAFÉ’s expanded community center.
• Lake Chelan Lions Club Foundation - $22,800 to purchase audiometers that will be used to detect hearing and vision problems in school-age children and provide community screenings for low-income and disadvantaged populations.
• Upper Valley MEND - $350,000 to acquire workforce rental housing units in Leavenworth.
• Wenatchee Valley YMCA - $462,000 to the organization’s capital campaign for a new facility.
• Youth Dynamics - $75,000 to be split between renovations at the group’s Stonewater Chalet in Plain and outreach efforts.
• Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment - $480,000 for land acquisition and construction of a new substance use disorder treatment facility in Chelan County.
• Chelan-Douglas Health District - $653,679 for a variety of improvements, from infrastructure to programming.

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media