The federal act provides emergency funding for various government bodies, according to a White House fact sheet. At the county meeting, commissioners updated how to spend Williamson County's ARPA dollars.
Two-minute impact
Commissioners approved allocating ARPA funds to Hope Alliance and the Yellow House Foundation, which are currently located in Round Rock and Cedar Park, respectively.
Funding will go toward construction projects, as both nonprofits are in separate phases of expanding to new Leander locations, a county official said. Each nonprofit will receive $95,000, according to county documents.
The Yellow House Foundation broke ground on a new building in June 2023, and construction is nearing completion, county officials said.
Hope Alliance held a groundbreaking June 28 for its new facility, and is actively working with the city of Leander to approve their planning process, officials said.
The funding will help the organizations, as costs for the projects came in higher than expected, Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said during the Oct. 29 meeting.
Also on the agenda
Along with nonprofit funding updates, commissioners discussed the county’s allocated funds for all ARPA projects, which total $1.3 million, according to county documents.
Several projects include new positions that utilize ARPA dollars, including:
- Juvenile security positions
- A domestic violence investigator
- County Attorney positions
- District Attorney positions
- District clerk/jury clerk
- Child Protective Services Project Bluebonnet contract
- CPS legal assistant
“I’m gonna say today that I can support this, but I need to see support from this,” Covey said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the court proposed adding county and district attorney positions to work through a court backlog, and Covey said she’s being told there’s no longer a significant backlog.
While the court currently has the ability to pay for the positions, Covey said she anticipates a push to add some of the positions to the general budget in the future.
“We're going to need to see evidence that these are needed in the future,” Covey said.
Remember this?
On Sept. 17, commissioners approved adding three CPS positions, which use ARPA funding, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
On Oct. 29, Covey said the CPS positions wouldn’t be considered for the county’s general budget, and had previously suggested funding the positions through the Tobacco Fund.
