Quorum Court reclaims $1 million ARPA tranche; orders drafting to send it to Emergency Operations Center

Washington County justices voted to direct county counsel to draft an ordinance moving a previously committed $1,000,000 in federal recovery funds to the county’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), rather than leave those funds with the Accelerate Foundation for an affordable‑housing effort.

The move follows an extended presentation by Accelerate Foundation CEO Jermaine Webster and staff about an RFP process and a proposed 150‑unit affordable housing development in Springdale to be led by Mercy Housing. Accelerate asked whether a $1,000,000 tranche of ARPA/FRF funds—originally appropriated to local workforce and training projects that will not proceed on the expected timeline—could be combined with $1.4 million in ERA‑2 funds already obligated to Accelerate to help leverage a larger, roughly $45 million, low‑income housing tax‑credit project.

"We had about $1.7 million that if you ask for it, the federal government is going to give it to you because it's money that was available for Washington County that hadn't been used," Jermaine Webster said in the presentation, describing how the county obtained ERA‑2 funds and how Accelerate ran an RFP that led to Mercy Housing's selection.

Webster described Mercy Housing’s proposed…