The Jamestown City Council discussed new American Rescue Plan Act funding resolutions during Monday’s City Council work session. If the proposed resolutions are passed at the end of the month, the council will have allocated over $20 million in ARPA funding. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

The City Council is considering resolutions this month that would leave less than $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding available for future programs.

Finance committee chairwoman Kimberly Ecklund, R-At large, said it is a “scary thought” to leave less than $8 million in ARPA funding for the city.

“As of today, everything that has been approved already by council equates to $18,831,713,” she said. “That total would go up if we were to approve these as written today to $20,081,713, leaving a total of $7,997,432.”

Ecklund said the remaining total in ARPA funding is “not much” when compared to the number of programs and ideas being discussed by the City Council and the administration.

Two of Monday’s proposed resolutions with ARPA funding were discussed at length in both the finance committee meeting and the council’s full work session.

Ecklund told the council the finance committee had discussed the resolutions and had a couple questions and concerns for the city comptroller to address before the council’s voting session at the end of the month.

If the two resolutions in question are passed as written, $500,000 will be reappropriated from the Home Improvement Incentive program in order to fund the city’s Senior Citizen Home Improvement Incentive program. City officials have also asked the City Council to approve an additional $500,000 for the Senior Citizen Home Improvement Incentive program.

The finance committee expressed concerns that the Senior Citizen Home Improvement Incentive program would have $1.5 million, while the Home Improvement Incentive program available to the rest of the community would have no funding.

Ecklund asked Mayor Eddie Sundquist if applications for the home improvement incentive program had been sent out and if the city had done anything with the program already. She warned that removing funds from the home improvement program could be perceived as ignoring part of the population of Jamestown while favoring only one portion of the population.

“Nothing has been done with the home incentive improvement program besides the senior citizen program,” Sundquist said. “We did that program first. When we rolled out the program, we got $1.8 million in request, which has been quite popular.”

While the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program is limited to a certain population in the city, Sundquist said the Home Improvement Incentive program would provide anyone who invested over $5,000 in home repairs with a cash rebate. However, he explained the city does not currently have the funding to grant awards to all the senior citizen applicants and still fund the Home Improvement Incentive program. Additional ARPA funding would be required to meet both needs; however, the city is hesitant to allocate too much of the remaining ARPA funding.

Ecklund said she believes the council supports additional funding for the senior program but explained the council also does not want to neglect other residents in the city.

“I don’t think anyone is opposed to increasing the seniors,” Ecklund said. “It’s just that fine balance of not forgetting someone else.”

Councilwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward IV, agreed with Ecklund’s concern and said she is getting calls from concerned citizens who are not eligible for the senior program.

One example Carrubba shared was the issue homeowners in the city are having with people breaking into their garages and unsecured areas of their property. She said the residents she has talked to have expressed concern about not having the finances to make improvements to their homes to make them more secure.

“There are people in the middle who are not 62 yet and they may not have a severe disability, but they may be working two part-time jobs to try to make ends meet,” she said. “You can’t just say it’s always for one demographic only. I think we need to look at some of the other individuals.”

Carrubba warned that many people in the community are “feeling uncomfortable” because they do not know how to protect their homes and garages from intruders without making costly improvements to their homes.

“We’re not just dealing with seniors having these issues,” she said. “These are people that don’t meet the senior age qualification.”

Sundquist said his administration will consider other funding options for the two programs and is open to any suggestions from the City Council.