Collier County releases spending plan for American Rescue Plan stimulus
Collier has released a report detailing plans for spending more than $74 million that the county received through the American Rescue Plan Act.
The county’s spending plan includes about $28 million for public health efforts, $21.5 million to combat negative economic impacts of the pandemic, $9.8 million for services to disproportionally impacted communities, $9.2 million for water and infrastructure upgrades and $5.9 million for administrative costs.
The county’s plan also includes $408,000 set aside for premium pay for certain employees of Collier Emergency Medical Services. The county will recognize EMS employees that served on the front line during the pandemic with a one-time $2,000 premium pay bonus.
The American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, was signed into law in March and provided $350 billion dollars in emergency funding for state, local, territorial and Tribal governments.
Collier County received about $67.1 million through the CARES Act, or the Coronavirus Aid and Economic Security Act, last year.
“While the CARES Act was intended to respond to immediate impacts from the pandemic, ARPA funding is designed to help communities turn the tide on the pandemic, address economic fallout and lay the foundation for a strong, effective, efficient, and equitable long-term recovery,” according to the county’s spending plan.
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The county has until the end of 2026 to complete the projects and provide services through American Rescue Plan funding. The plan emphasizes that changes to spending may be made over the five-year period.
“The County recognizes that pandemic recovery must be flexible to respond to shifting changes and needs in the community and may make changes to program expenditures throughout the implementation period to address the highest priority within the community,” the spending plan reads.
A key aspect of developing the plan was a focus on disproportionately disadvantaged residents in the county and Qualified Census Tracts, according to the spending plan.
A Qualified Census Tract is any census tract designated by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development that has a poverty rate of at least 25 percent or at least 50 percent of the households with an income of less than 60 percent of the area median gross income.
There are 11 Qualified Census Tracts in Collier County, and they are located near East Naples, Lely, Golden Gate and Immokalee.
Public health initiatives
Out of its $28 million allocated toward public health efforts, the county will spend $2 million on personal safety equipment for first line responders working in healthcare operations.
The largest chunk of its public health spending, $20.2 million, will be used to cover costs incurred by Collier County EMS and Human Services during the pandemic. This money will be used to cover payroll and benefits of employees responding to COVID-19.
About $5.5 million in the public health subcategory has also been set aside for mental health services. Nonprofit subrecipients will implement the mental health services, according to the county’s plan.
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“As a result of the pandemic, increased social isolation has exacerbated depressive and affective disorders; these funds will be used toward the outcome of reducing negative mental stresses in all individuals served,” the spending plan reads.
The public health subcategory also includes $275,000 to provide health services aimed at improving health outcomes for individuals with co-morbidities of COVID-19, such as diabetes, according to the spending plan.
Assistance for individuals and businesses
The second largest subcategory in the spending plan is for combating negative impacts of the pandemic on businesses and individuals. About $7.5 million has been set aside for household assistance in the form of rent, mortgage and utility aid, according to the county’s spending plan.
The rental program will be available to individuals with income of 80 to 140 percent of the area median income as this group was excluded from the county’s rental assistance program in 2020. The mortgage program will serve households with up to 140 percent of the area median income.
The program will provide up to 15 months’ rent or mortgage with a maximum of $25,000.
The county has allocated an additional $525,000 for eviction prevention. This funding will be used to provide individuals or families at risk of eviction with an eviction liaison, mediator and someone to help them navigate the court system.
Another large chunk of the combating negative impacts of the pandemic subcategory has been set aside to support food programs in the county. The county will partner with the Community Foundation of Collier County to distribute about $5.1 million to local food banks.
To assist small businesses, the county has set aside $5.5 million for grants of up to $25,000 for Economic Injury Disaster Loan forgiveness or utility bill in arrears payments.
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The county has also set aside $1 million to further assist small businesses adversely affected by the pandemic through reimbursements for business software upgrades, digital marketing and strategic planning counseling.
A small business will be defined as having less than 500 employees or defined as such by the Small Business Association’s industry specific standards, according to the spending plan.
The county set aside $1.5 million in the spending plan to aid nonprofit organizations, specifically organizations that serve individuals with disabilities, people at risk of homelessness or experiencing homelessness, and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
The final item in the combating negative impacts of the pandemic subcategory is about $335,000 set aside to increase tourism in the area by promoting the county’s five free museums, according to the spending plan.
Education projects
Funding in the services for disproportionately impacted communities subcategory will be spent on education assistance and projects.
This includes about $1.5 million set aside for a program involving 200 Verizon Jetpack WiFi hotspots. The hotspots will be available for check-out at libraries in Immokalee and Northern Golden Gate for 12 weeks by individuals without internet access.
Libraries in Golden Gate and Immokalee will receive additional support in the form of education sessions that will cost about $2.7 million. Three sessions per week will be offered to support literacy and improved education of local students.
A coordinator will serve at each branch, overseeing community outreach, tutoring programs and teen life skills programs through the funding. An additional $2.9 million has been allocated to build up the print and audio-visual collections of libraries in Immokalee and Golden Gate.
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About $2.2 million in the subcategory of services for disproportionately impacted communities will go toward programs through the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Science Extension in Collier County. These programs will include nutrition education, cooking activities, family financial education, gardening programs and youth development activities.
The spending plan also allocates about $561,500 for the recreation of a citrus grove and homestead garden at Immokalee Pioneer Museum. This project will build healthier environments and provide education and food to disadvantaged youth in Immokalee, according to the spending plan.
Infrastructure projects
The county set aside about $9.2 million to go towards infrastructure projects.
The first is the Harbor and Holiday Lanes stormwater management and green infrastructure project, which will cost about $2.3 million. The project involves the reconstruction of two neighborhood streets, using green infrastructure such as swales, to reduce flooding in the Brookside neighborhood.
The second project will cost about $3.9 million in Naples Manor, where stormwater runoff flows southwest, entering sensitive receiving waters of the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, according to the county’s spending plan.
The project will recover, reclaim and enhance three unmaintained lakes currently in poor condition to convert them into stormwater management areas.
The final project will cost $3 million and seeks to improve water quality and upgrade stormwater management systems in the Lake Trafford Road Corridor near Immokalee.
The goal of the project is to use green infrastructure, such as swales, to improve stormwater retention and lower flooding in the area, according to the spending plan.
In a separate funding subcategory, the county has set aside $5,850,000 for administrative costs associated with the American Rescue Plan Act. These costs include grant management and evaluation of programs the county has chosen to fund.
How was the spending plan created?
County commissioners unanimously approved a draft version of the spending plan for the American Rescue Plan Act funds at their June 22 meeting.
“This is directly in line with what we’ve given previous direction to, emphasizing that the assistance be brought to our community directly as much as is possible,” said Commissioner Bill McDaniel at the meeting. “I think it’s a fine way for us to go and still provides us with flexibility if we see a direction that we do need to go.”
Before approval from commissioners, county staff reached out to partners across the government and nonprofit sectors for feedback. This feedback identified public health, economic impact assistance and services to disproportionately impacted communities as categories to fund.
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The county also accepted feedback from the public through an online survey that was open from Aug. 13 to Aug. 20, which received 206 responses from residents and those associated with businesses or nonprofits in the county.
Most respondents, 98.5%, responded that the programs presented by the county in the spending plan would benefit residents, according to survey results.
Most respondents, 94.2%, responded that the programs presented by the county in the plan would benefit county businesses, according to the survey results.
Many respondents noted the importance of funding mental health services, food assistance, services to children, broadband access and additional healthcare in open-ended questions, according to the survey results.
After input from commissioners and the public survey, the county submitted a finalized version of its spending plan to the U.S. Treasury on Aug. 31.
