St. Louis officials may shift more than $6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds away from their original projects and toward fixing water infrastructure issues in the city.
Members of the city's Housing, Urban Design and Zoning Committee discussed the measure on Tuesday, along with another bill that would allocate ARPA interest funds toward water infrastructure projects.
If approved, Ward 1 Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer's Board Bill 161 would reallocate rescue plan funds previously applied to several different city departments directly to fixing the city's ailing water infrastructure.
"What I really like to think about with the water division is that investing in this division is directly investing back into the city and into ratepayers, because this is a publicly owned utility," Schweitzer said. "When the City of St Louis protects it, when the residents and the ratepayers protect it, it just pays dividends for the future."
The city has been dealing with main breaks and other water infrastructure problems. The public utilities director, Niraj Patel, called the funds a "necessary lifeline" as the department struggles with constant repairs and rising costs.
"We do have an internal capital project list that is up over $700 million, but you cannot bite all of that apple at once," Patel said. "So we do have to start with some of the ones that are causing us the highest costs and the highest number of recent breaks, "
Patel gave details on the city's water infrastructure, noting that the department identified more than 64 projects across the city in need of repair or replacement. Patel said that while many range in cost, each project would cost roughly $1 million.
A separate bill that got initial approval at Tuesday's meeting puts roughly $1.2 million of ARPA fund interest toward some repairs and replacements. Patel said that money will cover two or three projects.
"These projects are necessary, they are costly, but we will put these dollars to use to repair or replace this infrastructure," Patel said.
The city has roughly 300 days left to spend rescue plan funds before they will return to the U.S. Treasury.
Kaitlyn Smith, a policy adviser to Mayor Cara Spencer, said the funds will also backfill money the water department lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said many of the funds are being reallocated because the departments cannot use them anymore for a variety of reasons.
One such example, she said, was a Community Development Administration project that was destroyed by the May 16 tornado.
The funds for reappropriation come from several different departments and projects. However, the vast majority of the $6 million comes from three departments: the Community Development Administration, the Office of Violence Prevention and the Human Services Department.
The $2 million in funds for the Community Development Administration was originally allocated for the production and preservation of affordable housing and production in the city, neighborhood beautification support for community development corporations in the city and for a proactive development fund for the city's land bank and preservation of historic neighborhoods.
Another $2 million comes from the city's violence prevention fund. Those funds were originally allocated for youth and juvenile diversion, assistance for Pell Grant-eligible college students, summer and year-round youth programming and behavioral health providers.
About $1.2 million comes from the city's Department of Human Services. Those funds originally aimed to fund support for care workers, mortgage assistance case management and program operation, and several other smaller funds.
City attorney Nancy Walsh told members of the committee the city can legally shift these funds under ARPA guidelines from the U.S. Treasury. The rules allow some funds to be treated as revenue replacement for expenses incurred by the city before 2024, she said.
"This is being used as revenue replacement to pay the water department back," Walsh said. "We're really taking ARPA money, paying ourselves back for those expenses, and then we can hand the money over to water for new projects."
The committee will discuss the measure further at its next meeting in March.
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