The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday, Nov. 10. During this meeting, among other items, they held a discussion about the borough's CARES Act funding. They reviewed expenses so far, as well as possible future projects.
Wrangell received a $3.85 million grant from the CARES Act, to help the city respond to the COVID-19 update, according to a memo from Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen. Between March and October of this year, $2.3 million has been spent on a variety of programs and payroll for borough employees. About $1.55 million remains unspent, but a significant portion of this is already set aside for future wages and other expenses. There is $517,190.64 available for expenditure, according to the memo. The city currently has proposed uses for these funds totaling $498,500. If all these requests were approved and there were no other expenses, Wrangell would only have $18,690.58 in CARES Act funding unspent by the end of 2020.
Some of the new requests for funding include the possible use of $50,000 for an airport generator, a combined $45,000 for rent and utilities for the COVID alternate isolation site, $5,000 for legal expenses, and $100,000 for fire department pay through Dec. 31, among other requests. Von Bargen pointed out the fire department pay specifically, as a potential response to a decreased amount of volunteer fire fighters being willing to respond to calls during the pandemic, and to an increased workload on paid staff. Another potential use of money, which Von Bargen said she did not know the estimated cost of, would be continued airport testing after the state discontinues its testing program.
In addition to all this information, Von Bargen reported that there are several authorized expenses that have not yet used their full allocations, meaning that some money could potentially be moved to different items. For example, $125,000 has been allocated to the school district to help with their COVID-19 related costs. Only approximately $63,000 has been used so far. The remainder could potentially be reallocated.
Von Bargen also pointed out that all their CARES Act money has to be spent by the end of the year. The city would also need to consider the city's staffing needs in continuing to respond to the pandemic, even after the money is gone. With trends in the state being what they are, she said she is concerned the pandemic might get worse before things get better.
"We can pay for things through January, because bills will come in after the fact, etc.," she said. "One of the things we know we cannot pay for is staff ... What is not factored into the budget is the staff that has been pulled on in addition, to assist us."
The discussion around CARES Act funding went on for some time. Assembly Member Julie Decker said she would like more information on what the situation might look like for Wrangell post-Dec. 31. Assembly Member Patty Gilbert also suggested that the city check and see if a $4,000 expense for Text-to-911 for the police department could be covered by the CARES Act.
Mayor Steve Prysunka said his ideal situation would have Wrangell spending every cent of their CARES Act funds, so they don't have to return any. The money is meant to support local communities, he said, so every bit spent will help the community. He also added that they should look at ways to spend this money that could offset future expenses, too. This opinion was shared by other members of the assembly.
"They [the funds] were put in place for those dollars to roll around our community," he said. "We've done our level best to do that."
As this was only a discussion item, no formal action was taken.
"We will be coming back with a final spending plan in very short order," Von Bargen said.
Other items covered in the meeting include the assembly accepting a $55,000 grant from the NRA for skeet range improvements, authorizing the expense of $9,602 for a new cable for The Marine Service Center's crane, amending the job description of the parks and rec custodian light maintenance position, and amending the position of accounting generalist. Before adjourning, they held an executive session on the status of collective bargaining negotiations.
Prior to their meeting, the assembly held a workshop on proposed upgrades to the Municipal Light and Power metering system. As this was only a workshop, no formal action was taken on this item. A writeup of this workshop will be made available in next week's edition of the Wrangell Sentinel
Reader Comments(0)