DECEMBER 3, 2024 |
Photo – Rawlins Water Treatment Plant sign – Bigfoot99 file photo
The City of Rawlins has forfeited over a million dollars in federal funding that was allocated to repair the city’s failing water system. All is not lost, however, as city officials have secured additional grant money for the projects.
In March of 2022, a series of water line breaks left Rawlins residents without safe drinking water for nearly a week. Later in the year, Rawlins officials requested a $7.5 million ARPA grant from the Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board to repair and replace broken sections of the water transmission line. The state agency denied the city’s request, awarding Rawlins no money. State representatives informed city officials that they should have had a clear plan to present to the SLIB board before requesting millions of dollars for a project.
In November of 2023, the State Lands and Investment Board held another round of ARPA funding requests. This time, Rawlins officials asked for money to design a new water collection and transmission system. SLIB awarded the city $735,000 for the project.
The Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act required all funds be officially committed to the specified project before this past October. All of the uncommitted money must be returned to the federal government. Due to the difficulty in securing outside contractors, many Wyoming municipalities were unable to encumber their federal funding before the October 1st deadline.
To prevent Washington D.C. from reclaiming millions of dollars in unspent ARPA funding, Governor Mark Gordon signed the American Rescue Plan Act appropriations bill, granting the state authority to reallocate unused federal money.
During the September 27th Joint Appropriations Committee Meeting, Kevin Hibbard, with the State Budget Department, explained that by taking unencumbered money back from municipalities, the Wyoming legislature is ensuring that the funding will still be available for the state to use in the future.
Speaking to Bigfoot99 last week, Rawlins City Manager Tom Sarvey explained that the city was unable to encumber the entirety of the ARPA funding in time. Some work was completed before the deadline, but the city must now give $1.5 million back to the state.
Sarvey said city officials made every attempt to commit the federal money before October 1st. Unfortunately, other important water projects and the departure of former City Engineer Austin Gilbert caused the deadline to be missed.
On November 13th, the Wyoming Water Development Commission awarded Rawlins $2.8 million to pay for repairs to the 30 miles of water transmission line running between the Sage Creek Springs and the water treatment plant. Sarvey said that money will help offset the lost ARPA funding.
Along with the $2.8 million Wyoming Water Development Commission grant, Sarvey said the city was also able to spend a portion of the ARPA funding to design a new collection system at the Sage Creek Springs. Additionally, the city has received grants to design a new high pressure water line and replace the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, system at the water treatment plant.
Sarvey explained that the city still has a $675,000 mineral royalties grant and over a million dollars in unspent impact assistance funds to pay for the water infrastructure projects.
Despite the additional funding opportunities, Sarvey acknowledged that losing $1.5 million in ARPA funding was a significant setback.
Bigfoot reporter Matt Copeland once again reached out to the Office of State Lands and Investment for a complete list of municipalities that had their unspent ARPA funding returned to the state.
The information was expected to be made available by mid-November. As of the reporting of this story, the OSLI has not responded to the request.
