How To Spend $133M In Relief Funds? Will County Wants To Know

Plainfield IL

06 August, 2021

11:40 AM

Description

PLAINFIELD, IL — The Will County Board is looking for input on how to spend $133 million in COVID-19 relief funds distributed as part of the American Rescue Plan Act earlier this year. County residents, business owners and non-profits organizers can provide feedback through this survey, the board announced Friday. "We want to know what the people that live and work in Will County need in their communities due to the pandemic," Speaker of the Will County Board Mimi Cowan (Naperville) said in a statement. "This short survey will help the County Board direct funds to where they are most needed." Unlike the CARES Act in 2020 that made Will County responsible for distributing relief funds to local municipalities, the ARPA provided direct funds to larger cities and villages separate from the county. About $9.1 million was allocated to Bolingbrook, for example, while Naperville got $22.2 million, officials said. "With the larger municipalities receiving their own direct allotments of ARPA funds from the Federal government, Will County can focus our County funding to other residents, businesses and groups that are in need of assistance," County Board Minority Leader Mike Fricilone (Homer Glen) said in a statement. Under federal guidelines for ARPA funding, the money must be obligated by December 2024 and fully spent by December 2026. The Board is looking to allocate some of the ARPA funds in the next month to two, according to Board Majority Leader Meta Mueller (Aurora). The survey can also be found through the Will County Board's Facebook page. A version of the survey in Spanish can be found here. (For more news and information like this, subscribe to the Plainfield Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. Don't forget to like us on Facebook!)