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Meadow reallocates ARPA money to water salaries; council to hold public hearing to amend budget
Summary
Council reported using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to reimburse the water fund for wages and salaries from 2021–2023 and scheduled a public hearing and budget amendment to formalize the accounting transfer.
Town officials told the Meadow Town Council that ARPA funds the town received after the COVID pandemic have been designated to reimburse the water fund for salaries and wages paid from 2021 through 2023, and that a budget amendment and public hearing are required to reflect that transfer.
An unnamed town official said the town received a sum from ARPA that staff determined could be used for water-related payroll costs and that the money “had to be earmarked for infrastructure.” The official described a constrained timeline: projects or contracts had to be committed by December 31 of the relevant year, and many small towns faced similar challenges finding qualifying projects in time. Because the town did not execute a qualifying capital contract in time, staff used the allowable option of applying the funds to water salaries and wages for the 2021–2023 period.
Council members repeatedly characterized the balance as roughly in the high‑$30,000 range: speakers described the amount variously as “close to $35,000,” “almost $39,000,” and referenced internal accounting lines that show about $38,081 on the books. Flores (finance staff) is working to place the amounts in the correct budget lines and the council agreed to submit a revised budget to the state for the current year reflecting the transfer from the general fund into the water fund.
Council members said using the ARPA funds in this way allowed the town to retain federal funding rather than returning it to the Treasury. The official noted that other potential uses (for example, power poles) could not be executed in time and thus were not feasible under the ARPA deadlines.
The council directed staff to schedule a public hearing to open the budget and move the ARPA amount from the general fund into the water fund; the hearing will be scheduled before the next regular meeting and the council agreed to hold the hearing at an upcoming meeting (participants discussed holding a public hearing at 7 p.m. on May 12 and then immediately following the regular council meeting). The council also set a tentative date of June 16 for the public hearing to consider the next fiscal year’s budget and to approve a final budget for submission to the state.
Ella Mordick, from Congresswoman Celeste Moy’s office, attended the meeting and listened to council comments about small-town constraints when administering ARPA funds; participants asked staff to share feedback with the congresswoman’s office about the complexity small towns faced when using ARPA money.
The council did not adopt a final budget amendment at the meeting; staff will present the formal amendment and the public hearing notice for council action at a future meeting.
