November 7, 2023 |
Photo – ARPA video frame – Courtesy Wyoming Association of Municipalities (WAM)
The communities of Rawlins and Saratoga have been selected to receive ARPA funds for water infrastructure projects. Wyoming officials, last week, granted Rawlins $735,000 and Saratoga $700,000 to underwrite projects.
In October of 2022, The Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board was given $50 million in ARPA money to distribute to counties and municipalities around the state. Communities petitioned the State Loan and Investment Board for portions of the federal funding to pay for various improvement projects.
The town of Saratoga asked for and received $966,268 to fund the Spring Avenue Water Line Replacement Project. Rawlins asked for $7,446,000 to repair and replace the city’s water transmission and delivery system. The city’s funding request was denied. Rawlins received no money.
On November 2nd, the State Loan and Investment board members met in Cheyenne to distribute another round of ARPA funding. During last Thursday’s meeting, Wyoming’s Director of Office Of State Lands and Investments Jenifer Scoggin said the state legislature provided SLIB with an additional $20 million.
The American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, is a $1.9 trillion federal funding package designed to help combat the economic effects of COVID.
Altogether, Scoggin said the Wyoming State Legislature gave SLIB $69.3 million in ARPA grant money to distribute during the two funding cycles. Fifty million dollars were appropriated in 2022 with an additional $20.3 million for this year. The director said the legislature demanded that $5 million of the most recent $20.3 million go to affordable housing projects. From June through August of 2023, the State Land and Investment Board asked communities to solicit projects for the remaining $15.3 million. Scoggin said SLIB received 29 requests for ARPA funding.
Scoggin said in total, SLIB received $37 million worth of funding requests. With $15.3 million in ARPA grant funding on hand, fulfilling all the requests would put the State Loan and Investment Board roughly $22 million in the negative. Nine projects were rejected outright for either failing to properly file their applications or for the project not being eligible for ARPA money. Of the remaining 20 applicants, 18 were considered for funding by SLIB during the November 2nd meeting. Each applicant presented their project proposals to the board.
Having received no federal funding to replace the city’s aging water infrastructure last year, Rawlins officials instead chose to ask for $735,460 to design a new source water collection and transmission system. Mayor Terry Weickum said the ARPA money will be used to engineer a replacement water transmission line and high-pressure system.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray asked Mayor Weickum how much it would cost to fully address the city’s water infrastructure problems. Mayor Weickum said he estimated Rawlins would need $20 million. The mayor said the city has been trying to generate additional revenue itself.
Mayor Weickum said the city’s water infrastructure is over a century old. The mayor said the ARPA money is required to avoid a future catastrophic water emergency.
Secretary Gray asked Mayor Weickum how he plans to address the city’s water issues. Mayor Weickum said designing a source water collection and transmission system will allow him to better understand exactly what Rawlins needs to do to avoid a complete water infrastructure failure.
The town of Saratoga was also at the November 2nd SLIB meeting to request $700,000 to continue its water main replacement project down River Street. Public Works Director Emery Penner said the money will be used to update and secure the town’s water supply.
Saratoga’s River Street Water Line Replacement project is the continuation of the Spring Avenue project started last August. Originally slated to be completed by Halloween of 2022, the Spring Avenue project didn’t wrap up until late June of this year. The next phase of the water replacement initiative is scheduled to begin next summer.
After every community finished presenting their ARPA grant requests, the SLIB board voted to approve funding for 11 of the 18 projects considered. Both Rawlins and Saratoga received their entire requested amounts of $735,460 and $700,000 respectively.
