County closes book on ARPA funding

POUGHKEEPSIE — Dutchess County Comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair has issued a final report on the $57.1 million distributed to the county under the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, concluding that the funding made a positive impact despite shortcomings in planning for the way money was spent.

The federal ARPA funding was a COVID-19 relief initiative, allocating $1.9 trillion for pandemic relief that included $350 billion for state and local governments.

Dutchess County began receiving the funds in 2021 and 2022. All $57.1 million needed to be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024, and expended by Dec. 31, 2026.

Aymar-Blair’s report, released March 24, is the final of 12 that have been issued since March 2022. The Comptroller noted that there were three different County Executives over the course of the disbursement time frame.

“With any set of expenditures as large and far-reaching as these, there can be disagreement over the merits, timing, and prioritization of certain projects over others,” Aymar-Blair wrote in his summary.

“However, it is in the opinion of the Comptroller that the planning in relation to the allocation and spending of these funds could have been more rigorous,” he added.

William F.X. O’Neil served as County Executive beginning in January 2023 when he was appointed to complete the third term of Marc Molinaro, who was elected to Congress in the 19th District. Sue Serino took office in January 2024.

As of June 30, 2024, the county had spent a little over $31 million in ARPA funds. In that month, Dutchess County Executives updated the ARPA fund spending plan, choosing to allocate all remaining funds to education in the county, focusing mainly on Dutchess County Community College. The county chose to use the remaining $25 million to fund its contribution to the community college, chargeback costs paid to other community colleges and costs paid toward the New York State-mandated pre-school education program.

“The allocation to the college was a standard obligation that the county makes every year,” Aymar-Blair said in an interview. “What was a tax levy just became ARPA.”

“Reallocating ARPA funds for the Dutchess Community College and Pre-School Special Education costs resulted in a positive impact to the general fund balance in the amount of $15 million,” he said in the report.

Aymar-Blair said positive impacts of the funding included: retaining and hiring new staff, keeping non-profit partners afloat, supporting some of our most vulnerable populations, and generally mitigating the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Dutchess County.

A wide variety of grants were distributed through the program.

In Millerton, $328,000 was allocated under the ARPA program for Phase I of Eddie Collins Memorial Park revitalization.

The North East Fire District received $73,283 for protective equipment for fire rescue.

The Amenia Free Library Association received a $2,467 grant for future youth programming.

The Town of Pine Plains received grants for all-terrain wheelchairs, town parks and trails, and to make Stissing Lake Beach Park wheelchair accessible.

ARPA investments were made in several categories: community, county parks, youth services, education, food security, seniors, mental health and emergency medical services.

A plan to spend $11.6 million in ARPA funds for improvements to Heritage Financial Park, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades in Wappingers Falls, was reduced to spend funds for other projects, bringing the total cost of upgrades to the park to $1.4 million. Initial spending plans were changed as other funding plans surfaced, such as in the case of $10 million planned for a Youth Opportunity Center in Poughkeepsie that was reduced to $4.5 million.

States, counties and municipalities won’t receive funding for recurring program expenses with ARPA and Aymar-Blair said he didn’t see a problem with ongoing financial commitments now that the federal relief program has ended.

“I don’t see a burden on upcoming budgets,” he said.