The Custer County Board of Commissioners discussed assistance with the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds with a second service provider during the regular meeting Monday morning.
Allyson Carter and Amy Ford with Emblem Strategies, a grant management company, discussed the company’s three service options regarding ARPA fund management.
“We are a full service company,” Ford said. “We help you get your reports filed. We help you identify projects which are of interest to you.”
The first option includes making sure the projects fall within ARPA guidelines, tracking sub-recipients to ensure they use the money as agreed and assisting the county with the reporting. The fee for this service is 6 percent of the total ARPA amount, about $336,000.
With the second option, the county would be responsible for ensuring projects fall within ARPA guidelines, but Emblem would track sub-recipients and assist with reporting. The fee for this service is 4 percent of the ARPA funds, about 224,000.
The third option only includes reporting assistant for 2 percent of the total ARPA funds, about $112,000.
Carter and Ford also are urging counties not to rush into spending money unless necessary because rules regarding more ARPA funds at the state level should be set late this year or early next year. Rules regarding the county’s ARPA funds also should be finalized about the same time.
“The rules governing all of this are interim-final rules, which is a word the federal government made up,” Ford said. “They are either interim or final. They think the rules will be final in October, but it may be later in the year.”
Additionally, the infrastructure bill currently moving through Congress may allow entities to use federal dollars as to match grant money.
Emblem also has insurance in case one of the projects later comes back as not falling within ARPA guidelines.
The board will discuss a contract with Emblem during a later meeting.