Commissioners recategorize ARPA funds and award matching grant to Deschutes River Conservancy

Deschutes County commissioners on March 11 agreed to recategorize remaining ARPA funds to a revenue-replacement category and to award a matching grant to the Deschutes River Conservancy (DRC) so the Smith Rock–King Way on-farm irrigation efficiency project can be completed.

Laura Skundrick, a county management analyst, told the board the county originally awarded the DRC an ARPA grant of $1,075,000 in 2022. Due to delays, the Conservancy cannot meet the Treasury’s ARPA expenditure deadline of Dec. 31, 2026. Skundrick proposed recategorizing $607,391 in remaining ARPA balances to the revenue-replacement category, which would allow those funds to be used in the general fund and then re-awarded as a county grant to match the Conservancy’s remaining balance.

Lisa (project representative) briefed the board on the project’s scope and history, saying staff had completed engineering, NEPA cultural-resource work and had secured federal funds that require the ARPA match to proceed with construction (now scheduled for October 2026). She described a large private lateral (the J7) serving 15 landowners and 17 parcels that the funding would help convert from flood to sprinkler irrigation.

Commissioners asked about the project acreage, administrative overhead, expected water savings and the impact of federal shutdowns on project timing. Skundrick and Lisa said the j7 lateral work ties into $30 million in federal piping investments and $2.6 million from the USDA NRCS already obligated to the geography; the outstanding ARPA balance is necessary to leverage those federal funds. The board voted unanimously to recategorize the ARPA funds and to award a $607,333.38 grant from the general fund to the Conservancy with a completion date of June 30, 2027.