Mixed results for countywide ARPA applications

Neither Crook County nor the City of Sundance was successful in securing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding during the most recent application cycle.

The county submitted an application for $2.15 million to fund a Consolidated Emergency Response Facility, while the city requested $648,000 for renovation of the fire hall.

The projects were among seven to be rejected as ineligible for the funding.

Two of the county’s municipalities did meet with success, however.

The Town of Pine Haven was awarded $222,000 for a sewer main project in Glenn Vista, while the Town of Moorcroft will receive $800,000 for the second phase of its Powder River Water Main project, which will continue the process of replacing failing infrastructure.

Ineligible Projects

The aim of Sundance’s project was to upgrade the current fire hall in order to increase the available storage for equipment and also create space for volunteers to meet.

The building has been in use since the 1980s; during the interim, equipment has continued to increase in size, from the gear worn by firefighters to the trucks themselves. According to Fire Chief Gari Gill, the department is also sorely in need of a training room.

The renovations would also allow for a new primary exit to be added on the south side of the building, which would mean that firefighters responding to a call will no longer need to emerge onto the highway.

This was the second attempt to secure ARPA funding, the first having met a hiccup when notice was not received in time that the State Lands and Investments Board (SLIB) required more information.

Shortly after, SLIB announced that more funding would soon be available. An additional $15.3 million was appropriated during the 2023 legislative session for eligible projects; on hearing this, the council decided to pursue the funding a second time.

Meanwhile, the county commissioners approved a grant application in January for funds that would be used to construct a new building to house the county’s emergency response departments under a single roof.

The building would contain space for three departments: fire, emergency management and search and rescue.

Review Process

SLIB met on November 2 to consider a total of 29 applications for the local government project funding pool. The funding was appropriated by the Wyoming Legislature to be awarded for administrative costs, competitive grant funding to address the COVID-19 emergency or its negative economic impact and eligible water and wastewater projects.

All capital projects needed to provide a detailed description of the identifiable harm caused or exacerbated by COVID-19 that would be addressed.

As part of the process, the Office of State Lands and Investments calculated a score for each application to help the board prioritize eligible projects, while the Wyoming Water Development Office and Department of Environmental Quality reviewed water-related applications for eligibility, feasibility and compliance.

Applications that did not meet the rules for eligibility were summarily rejected and not presented to the board for consideration.