How to spend 2.5 million of ARPA funds garnered many creative ideas from the community of Susanville, ranging from historical document storage to pickleball courts.
The council opened discussions on how to expend the COVID relief money through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), as they have until next year to dedicate and use those funds or face having to forfeit the remaining balance of the 3.5 million the city received.
City Administrator Dan Newton explained opportunities to use the funds; however, they have become less restricted as the money was allowed to be absorbed into the city’s General Fund.
Some ideas presented by those who attended the meeting included Jeremy Cuso of the Lassen Historical Society, who wished to see some of the funds help preserve between 160 and 170 years of Ssuanville’s history. SAtorage for the museum has been scattered over the years in dilapidated buildings with water leakage. A new storage building or updates to an existing garage would help save the history.
Another idea came from Bob Tyndall with the Airport Commission, asking for fire hydrants as the airport has none. Tyndall said this is a “safety item” That the Airport would be at the mercy of the Fire department’s 750-gallon engine capacity were a fire to overtake the grounds, with the largest concern for the fuel farm that would cause an inferno were it to be overtaken by an approaching wildfire.
The non-profit Hope Wheels also vied for 10,000 dollars of the funds to help launch a new Hope Boxes initiative. Tim Trevit, founder and CEO, said these boxes would be given to first responders filled with items for children at the scene of an incident for comfort.
Others represented uptown for improvement projects, another asked for a program to help eradicate the invasive goatheads that impact recreational trails throughout the city, and the Pickleball group who would like to see new courts built at Memorial Park.
Seventeen other items were listed from previous discussions on the matter compiled by city staff. Council member Stafford added suggestions for road improvements, crosswalk signals in uptown, and speeding surveys to improve safety on city streets.
In effort to take all into account and determine the best projects to move forward with a rubric will be created with criteria set forth by the council, scoring points for each project and those that emerge to the top will be discussed in future meetings.
Newton emphasized the need to get this process started as he said the city is not 100% sure they have met their expenditure requirements. Out of an abundance of caution, the city should shoot for spending the money by the December 2024 deadline or at least allocate the funds to a project by the deadline.
Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash
