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Relief funding guidance finalized

Grants for local entities not expected until later in the year

The guidelines for distributing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding have been finalized in the legislature, but the timeline for towns, counties and other entities to actually apply for that money is still to be announced.

SF-66 is the guidance that the City of Sundance – among many other cities, counties and organizations – has been waiting for. It appropriates specific amounts of money from Wyoming’s ARPA funds to various agencies and programs.

Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz says that Sundance will be ready, having been working on a list of projects of various sizes and costs to potentially present for funding when the time comes.

“We will need to wait for the formal rules to be released, at which point the city will be ready with its project list,” she says,

Lenz notes that COVID-19 relief funding is not the only pot of money on the horizon.

“There is still the federal infrastructure funding,” she says, referring to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that earmarks funding for needs including water, internet, climate control projects, environmental justice and investments in communities.

Again, the final rules have not yet been released for this funding, so Lenz says the city will be interested to see how things unfold.

Through SF-66, which the governor has signed into law, over $431 million will be appropriated from the ARPA funds for a wide range of purposes, including $2 million for outdoor rec and tourism, $10 million for workforce programs, $5 million for the EMS Stabilization Fund, $2.1 million for suicide prevention, $35 million for WyoLink and $22 million to expand broadband.

A total of $63 million will go to the Office of State Lands and Investments to provide grants for qualifying health and human services infrastructure and capital construction investments. Grants will require a 50-50 match (including in-kind contributions) unless the board decides to modify that requirement.

Of that total, $7 million will be “for the purpose of providing grants to community mental health center regional crisis stabilization facilities and women’s substance use disorder facilities” and $15 million will be for rural health clinics. Up to $13 million can be expended for infrastructure and capital investment investments for rural health clinics and up to $2 million for rural telehealth pilot projects.

The Office of State Lands and Investments will also receive $50 million for local government support projects for “administrative costs and merit-based allocations of competitive grant funding to cities, counties and tribal governments to address the COVID-19 public health emergency or its negative economic impacts”; and $50 million for grants of up to $7.5 million for eligible water and sewer projects.

The Wyoming Water Development Office will receive $45 million to be used as grants for eligible water projects. These grants will represent up to either 85% of the project cost or $7.5 million, whichever is lower.

 
 
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