Quorum court reclaims $1M ARPA, redirects it to Emergency Operations Center after debate over housing project

Washington County’s finance quorum court spent an extended portion of Thursday’s meeting considering a proposed affordable-housing project and whether to reallocate $1,000,000 in county-held American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds previously set aside for workforce-training buildings.

Chief Executive Jeff Webster of the Accelerate Foundation updated the court on an RFP process tied to $1.4 million in ERA2 federal funds that Accelerate was asked to administer for affordable housing. Webster said two developers applied; Mercy Housing’s Springdale project — a proposed 150-unit development using a 4% low-income housing tax credit structure — won the RFP. “So we awarded the funds to Mercy Housing,” Webster said.

Mercy’s proposed project was described as a roughly $45 million development in Springdale with a mix of units targeted at 50–60% area median income. Webster said the ERA2 money would be a relatively small but necessary “last dollars in” piece that only would be released if Mercy secured the full financing package; if Mercy could not secure state and philanthropic commitments, Accelerate said the funds could instead be deployed on a smaller, 24-unit project led by the county’s community development partner (CDC).

The meeting then turned to an additional $1,000,000 of federal recovery funds (FRF/ARPA) that the court previously appropriated but which Accelerate says is unlikely to be used for the originally intended workforce-building projects (Northwest Technical Institute and NWACC) because those construction plans changed. Webster asked whether the county would permit Accelerate to combine that $1,000,000 with the ERA2 $1.4 million to strengthen the Mercy financing package.

Several justices voiced concern about timing and conditionality. “If we get to that point and the project doesn't come to fruition, then we would ploy against the smaller project,” Webster said, describing the “off-ramp” contingency. Justice Lyons and others expressed concern that the ARPA/FRF money must be committed by the end of the month and spent by the federal liquidation deadline; they argued for reallocating the $1,000,000 to a county project that officials could deliver on the timetable.

After two competing motions — an amendment proposing that the $1,000,000 remain with Accelerate for housing and an original motion asking counsel to draft an ordinance to allocate the $1,000,000 to the county Emergency Operations Center (EOC) — the court voted down the amendment and then approved the EOC allocation. The court’s roll calls are recorded in the minutes; the chair directed counsel to prepare ordinance language for the full quorum court.

Why it matters: The decision redirects a near-term federal funding source away from an externally led housing leverage strategy and into a county capital project (EOC) that justices said could be obligated and spent within ARPA time constraints. Accelerate and Mercy Housing described a path to multiply the ERA2 funds into a significantly larger development, but the court prioritized certainty of timely expenditure.

Ending: The finance court’s action does not change Accelerate’s ERA2 award of $1.4 million to Mercy Housing; that award remains contingent on Mercy raising the rest of the projected financing. The $1,000,000 of ARPA/FRF funds that the county previously committed to workforce projects will be returned to county control and drafted into an ordinance to allocate the money to the EOC on the upcoming full-court agenda.