Finance committee reviews ARPA closeouts; officials flag Salvation Army award as at risk of return

Sharon Wiley, LaSalle County’s ARPA coordinator, told the Finance Committee on Nov. 14 that the county is entering the final year for many ARPA-funded ordinances and that most awards have closed. "We are in the last year of this and in the last set of ordinances that we awarded, we told them they had to have all their monies in by November," Wiley said, noting 22 of 145 ordinances remain open and most are small.

Wiley singled out the Street/Salvation Army grant as a major concern: she said their current monthly spending rate is running well under what would be needed to exhaust the award during the allotted time and that, if spending does not accelerate, the organization would likely return a substantial balance. "They need to spend about 11,000 a month to spend that down, and their bills are only coming in under 5," she said.

Committee members discussed options for returned funds. Wiley said ARPA-to-ARPA transfers are permissible (moving unspent ARPA amounts into other ARPA ordinances), while standard-allowance and ARPA rules restrict some reallocations; she suggested using returned funds to bolster high-priority items such as the sheriff’s resource officers if eligible. Members also discussed the timing of federal close-out letters and quarterly reporting; staff said the last required quarterly report had been filed in October.

The committee did not adopt a formal reallocation at the meeting; members tasked staff with contacting award recipients to request written confirmation when recipients will not spend remaining awards so the county can reassign funds where allowable.