Episode 73: ARP in Action
Let's take a tour around this state we love so much. On this episode of Municipal Equation, NCLM's podcast about cities and towns adapting to change, we explore how municipalities from the mountains to the coast are programming their American Rescue Plan allocations -- federal funds with transformative potential, and recipient cities are acting in that regard. Our guest on this episode is NCLM's Jack Cassidy, who has been covering ARP from its inception and likes to point out that when municipalities get support, they get the job done. Plenty of examples to celebrate and inspire, here. Listen now. ARP Expert Tour Coming Up
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Transcript
This episode of Municipal Equation is brought to you by MedCost. MedCost balances the care of your employees with the financial health of your local government by offering flexible administration, best in class care management, cost containment strategies, health and wellness programs, access to a broad provider network, and exceptional customer service. MedCost. This is Municipal Equation from the North Carolina League of Municipalities. This is Ben Brown from the League's communications office. And, I was in downtown Selma, North Carolina just recently during their monthly outdoor event called Rockin' on Raeford, referring to the street name there. It's where they set up a stage and they bring in a band to entertain the downtown crowd for free. It's great for business. It's great for socializing, for goodwill, community building. And And it brings in outsiders who bring their money, and they buy drinks, ice cream. They spend on the options. And the setting itself was great. And that it was in the historic downtown business district, kind of the heart of the town. With pretty and well preserved colorful old main street buildings, but it was also right outside of the, of Selma Town Hall. So the band takes the stage right there. There's a big crowd, and the singer for the band, after about three songs, points this out. He points out that kinda closely paraphrasing here, but he said, isn't this great? Isn't this beautiful? We have small downtowns all across the state that have been revitalized and have new life, and they're giving us new reasons to come together and appreciate what's around us and to have fun and and paraphrase. And to me, really, that hit home and connected really well with a lot of our messaging here at the league, especially with, here we grow at here wegrownc.org, which is a website the league of municipalities has been updating for years in partnership also with WRL Tech Wire. It's where we post stories about individual municipalities efforts and initiatives to revitalize and buzz and stay in great shape for tourists, and obviously for the people who live there, and who want a great quality of life. And that was really at the heart of what the singer for the band was saying, essentially, just from his own observation. And if you've been browsing Here We Grow Lately or our website, arp.nclm.0rg, you've probably seen our updates on how communities are investing in their futures with funding from the Federal American Rescue Plan, which has programmed a historic level of money directly for the betterment of cities and towns, totaling beyond a billion dollars in North Carolina alone, 1,300,000,000.0, giving municipalities a once in a generation opportunity to make really meaningful investments, such as with, say, water and sewer infrastructure. Stuff that isn't cheap, but is absolutely needed to keep the community in great shape. So my colleague at the league who works on these ARP stories is Jack Cassidy. He works in the communications division with me. And he always points out that when cities and towns get support, they get the job done. They invest in the things the community needs, altogether creating major ripple effects that help North Carolina on the whole. At this point, we've seen a decent number of stories from towns across North Carolina who've programmed their American Rescue Plan allocations in really excellent ways, positioning themselves for the future. So I want to talk with Jack about that, and lay out some examples of what we've seen from our future minded cities and towns, how they're spending their ARP dollars. Alright. Well, Jack, glad to have you here with us. I think long overdue for us to do an episode together at Municipal Equation. How's it going today? It's going great. Thanks for having me, Benny. I've been waiting to get on this podcast for a long time. It's a it's a real honor. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, you and I work at the in the communication squad at the League Municipalities. But as it goes with that kind of work, you know, we we kinda work with every department, all members, every division here at the office to get the word out to our members in a great number of different matters, including one of the biggest things we've ever seen come down the hill, and that's the American Rescue Plan or ARP, sometimes called ARPA, and what it allocates to our cities and towns. Could you just for some enrichment, could you remind us what the grand total is of, like, just how much of a distribution is coming to North Carolina cities and towns from the American Rescue Plan? Yes. So
you're right in that it's it's a it's a massive deal for our cities and towns. It is 1,300,000,000.0. That's just for the municipalities. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. With the b. We're not talking money for the state. We're not talking the money that went to individuals, businesses, not even to counties. This is this is just to the local governments, the the over 500 of them split up. There's a 26, cities that qualifies metropolitan areas. They they receive the bulk of it, but, yep, all 550 plus are, received some some funds through this act.
And we have all kinds of resources on our website dedicated to ARP information. That's arp.nclm.org. And, Jack, you've been busy on this website, keeping things not just up to date with the basic details, but the background on it and keeping a log of sorts of how individual cities and towns are putting their ARP money to great use. Could you tell us a little bit about that? These these case studies of how different towns are are planning their ARP, expenditures and what kinds of things we're seeing? Are there any common denominators or anything like that? Absolutely. Yeah. It's, you know, it's been fun to track this act, you know, from its
passage to now. You know, it's like a lot of the things we do at the league. The work that we do really mirrors the work that's happening in the cities. So when it passed, it was the big thing was getting information out, you know, making sure that the forms were filled out and the registrations were done and that the money was going to the right place and that the that the guidance was being followed. And, you know, as you know, it's been over a year now, and some money's been received, and plans have come to place. And now it's a matter of of sharing what these towns are doing, you know, not just for a a pat on the back for a job well done, but really to share ideas amongst each other. You know, we see we see a lot of towns working together. We see a lot of regional partnerships. And, it's it's it's really, uplifting to see, just how these towns are pursuing these things. You know, one thing that, you know, I really appreciate working at the league and, you know, I work to to spread this idea is that, when you give our cities and towns the chance to succeed, they almost always do. There's 540, 550 plus towns, all different. But what we see through these case studies is that though they have, you know, quite a bit of freedom to to to take these funds and to do what they want to do best for their towns, that they usually do very similar things. They recognize the areas of biggest need, and they don't need to be they don't need a whole lot of direction Right. Or, you know, urging to do that. The biggest thing, of course, is, water. Mhmm. Water, sewer, wastewater, our our utilities, and our our infrastructure. There's there's a significant need for that in North Carolina. You know, we published a report last year. It's called, the American Rescue Plan Infrastructure Report where we we just we just did some research and brought some facts to light. And, you know, research has shown that over the next twenty years, the water needs in North Carolina will probably be about $52,000,000,000. Yep. It's it's a nationwide thing. North Carolina is not immune from it. A lot of the infrastructure that was built, you know, was built a long time ago, and it's reaching the end of its life, and it just needs replacement. And that responsibility falls chiefly on the cities. You know, two points of data here, local government systems in North Carolina serve 89% of the state population. So if, you know, 89 of every 100 is getting their water from a from a city source or city run utility, and 92% of those costs, are covered by the local governments. You know, there's grants, programs, covers a little bit here and there. But for the most part, it's on it's on the cities to do this. Right. So that's that's kind of what we've seen with the American Rescue Plan. You know, we the idea of the act was to recover from the pandemic and then to thrive long into the future. So town's got that. You know, that's the that's the goal. That's the mission. It came clear right away. We didn't really have to tell them how to do that. No one really had to tell them, here's how to set yourself up for long term success. They they all recognize it in their own ways that they had to get the the foundation laid properly, and and that really does in the city start with water. Right. And, you know,
thinking about ways to invest this money is as you pointed out, there's a lot of latitude. But to to make transformative changes, like water investments, like increasing sewer capacity. These are things that accommodate growth, you know, which a lot of towns, of course, are seeing. And when we talk infrastructure, we're usually not talking about pocket change. So growth is great. That can generate revenue in itself, but growing pains, you have to support that growth. But the effect of an infrastructure investment, even though that investment by might be large, the effect is going to be huge too. You know, not just for the local economy, but, you know, these investments ripple out. They make all kinds of other things possible. So remembering that ARP is to help our communities recover and bounce back from the effects of, the the pandemic and some of the hard times we had there. And it's great that infrastructure investments are part of the plan. Where do you think we should look first? What's a a good example of a a town to to take a look at? So when you talk about growth, a big place we can go to is Anjer.
Anjer's seen approximately 30% population increase over the past ten years. You know, it's something that Mhmm. You know, many towns in North Carolina are dealing with, this growth, which brings a lot of good, a lot of new people, a lot of new enthusiasm, businesses, all sorts of positives. But it also puts a lot of stress on the on the local government services. You really gotta up your, administrative capacity pretty quickly. The challenge of growth. So Andrew's approach was partnership. They they they had a long standing, really solid relationship with the county that they're in, Arnott County. And by doing that, they were able to invest you know, work together to invest in their sewer. Something we see with these growing towns, and we can touch on this in other examples too, is that the the growth is happening so quickly that the the money they receive from the American Rescue Plan is based on population. Those funds, they don't necessarily meet the population that they even have now. You know, even a year later, they, you know, they almost didn't get enough money to deal with this. Or we'd say that we could say that's the case in Andrew. 1,700,000.0 is what they received, which is certainly no small amount of money, but you're talking about infrastructure. It really takes a lot of strategy to make that go as far as possible. Sure. So by working with them, working with the county, you know, they were they were really stretched as much out of each dollar as they could. You got some county funds in there. They got different programs that they received. They work with the state to get some of their available funding. And in total, you know, they turn their 1,700,000.0 into a a a project that's gonna be closer to about 10,000,000 in funds. Amazing. In that same vein, talking about stretching dollars is about as far as you can go, move to the western part of the state. These towns, we we think of them as, you know, big towns or tourist destinations, places like, Silva, Boone, Waynesville. Mhmm. Actual population, though, you know, full time residents is somewhat low. So, again, their funds, their funds don't necessarily meet the need that is in there even even just for day to day services. So these towns are putting together fantastic strategies to stretch these dollars as much as they can. One of my favorite projects going on in the state is in Silva. It's it's it's a stormwater project, but it's also really a community asset. It's Bridge Park. So if you ever been to Silva, at their main street right downtown, it's at the base of, the Jackson County Courthouse. It looks over. It's very scenic. Mhmm. We took a trip out there a couple years ago or so. That was that was a blast. That's right. We talked to mayor Sossman, who's still there. Great great great representative, for her city. So Bridge Park at the end of the at the strip there, it has concerts on Friday nights. It's where food trucks go. It's like a real place where community can gather. But it's also a huge element of the city stormwater approach. You know, that's where a lot of rainwater goes, and they gotta they gotta they gotta take care of that. You know, it helps with protecting the businesses. It helps protecting the downtown, everything. So they they put their money towards that. What they did was they they were able to purchase, even before American Rescue Plan, a little bit of adjacent land. Gonna improve that. They're gonna add green space, gonna have a bioretention pond. They're gonna have all these improvements that, you know, to this to the average citizen of Silva is gonna look like a park improvement. It's gonna be a way nicer part of town that they're gonna enjoy and be proud of. And behind the scenes, this huge infrastructure need is getting met too. So they're really they're getting double dips on their dollars, and, I think that's just a an example of a of a really well thought out and targeted strategy for a for a for a small town getting the most out of their dollars.
So you you said there were some common denominators between some of these towns. Let's let's look at a few more and,
see how they're spending or planning to spend their ARP allocation. Sure. It's and staying out west, you know, with the denominator of of public infrastructure, but with the uniqueness of each strategy. So you got Silva getting the most out of each dollar. Move over to Waynesville. Their strategy was was quickness. They wanted to get their dollars in the community as quickly as they could as they could so they could, you know, feel the return and, invest in the community and, you know, take care of what they need to take care of post pandemic. Similar things, a stormwater project, another water project, couple water plant upgrades. But by moving it quickly, they get that money out there. They leave themselves some of their ARP funds still to go into the community. They made, this is kind of a little a a smaller side of their investment, but I think it really it really exemplifies, how that approach of quickness helped out. They upgraded their, just recycling bins. They they offered new recycling bins to the to each house Nice. In town. You know, something that you wouldn't really notice, but it was designed to go with their new their new trucks to help with pickup. It it made for a safer environment for the sanitation workers. And in not even six months, their recycling usage in town has gone up 65%. That's amazing. There's little things like that that you can really see the how the strategy pays off for these towns. So you you had mentioned earlier,
some tourist towns just kinda staying out west looking at a place like Highlands, making the point it's it's it's an important point about, a tourism town or a college town where there may be a full time resident base, but in the the peak months, you know, the the town has to have the capacity. They have to have the the strategy, the plan to deal with the seasonal population, you know, which can really, really mushroom, you know, mountain towns, beach towns, a lot of resort destination towns. So Highlands is another one, that has
make it made some moves with, their ARP money. What what are they looking at? Yeah. Another perfect example. You know, full time residents in Highlands is, you know, barely over a thousand people. So, very limited funds that they receive, but just as big of an is needs that exist in many other towns because the town's footprint is that of many thousands if ever been there. Right. So, again, their biggest need is water infrastructure, and they focused on a pretty critical capital project towards that. So it's a it was a water project that's just right downtown. It's called the Moorewood Waterline Replacement Project, and it's in a critical area. So it's something that's just right in the middle of downtown and is really at the central of of Highland's entire operation. You know, it's it supports the businesses. It's it's on their main stretch. It's a place where tourists will be often, and it's not like anyone will notice this water project happening. But if it wasn't addressed, you know, it's those sorts of things that start to go south, start to get some issues, some flooding issues, some some problems that you don't wanna have. So while their funds were limited, by targeting the air you know, arguably, their area's of basic biggest need. So it's just another example of a project that a citizen might not see that but it's something that it wasn't addressed, but would be, you know, a terrible, a terrible thing to happen in the city. It would affect, you know, all elements of their operations. So, that's really the the theme. You know, we got these common denominators. We got these differences. But what what what really cuts through all of them is cities and towns taking care of what they know is most important, the things that support the local businesses, support the homes, support their economic engines, whether that's industry or tourism. There's just so many examples of towns targeting what they need and using the dollars to
to to make it happen. And in the the case of Highlands, they already had this project on their, to do list, I believe. So them getting the air ARP money when they did to go ahead and move forward with this is really timely and convenient for them so they can have some budget relief.
Yeah. We've seen that. That's that's another thing we see quite a bit with towns. You know? These these projects aren't picked out of the air. They're not willy nilly. They're not they're not thrown about because a town gets a windfall of a of a million bucks. Right. A lot of these towns have capital improvement plans that were, you know, put together over the course of years, and they have these priorities. And a a good example of this, Marion, Marion, North Carolina. It's another example of of of really excellent preparation. You know, I spoke with manager Bob Boyette who was who told me that these these things that they're funding in town, which include some water projects, maybe some street repairs, a Main Street renovation. They purchased and will be renovating the build a building on Main Street that is literally their logo. So that's that's central to the, the town's image. But it's not like these projects were, you know, were discussed as soon as the money came in or were things that, or decide over a quick meeting. These were long term priorities, but they just weren't able to be addressed because of you know, these are large projects. To to to take them on would require a bond referendum, a tax increase. These things that the burden would have to fall to
the citizen, to the community member. That's the other thing. The main financial resource that cities and towns have control over would be the property tax. And so when we're talking about the people's money, this is not something that is is taken lightly. So when you do have a a substantial project that you're looking at or a significant project that's in need, having these resources this is what, you know, when you say at the beginning of, of each of these case studies that, you know, when cities and towns get support, they get the job done. This is the way they're getting the job done, and it's gonna have ripple effects, into the future. Absolutely. It really speaks to the complexity of the issues that these cities have to contend with every time they make a decision.
1¢ property tax for a one portion of the population in a town is manageable, but it's really an equity issue when you start talking about people on fixed incomes and Right. Other people that face, you know, financial challenges. It's not what the route you wanna go towards towards towards your city operations. And, you know, our local leaders know this, and they say they say it all the time. So what we find with these American Rescue Plan plans in our local governments is, first, they do what they have to do to recover from the pandemic. A lot of that includes, you know, just, health measures, the premium pay for the essential workers who put themselves in harm way that whole year. And then on the second half of the the mission, like we, you know, that we stated earlier, to thrive well into the future, that's when you get into these priorities. One thing I I ask everyone I talk to, you know, whether it's mayors, managers is, you know, what was the decision making process? What was how did the staff and Right. The elected officials come to these decisions? How do they reach these conclusions? And it's never it's never an exciting story. It's always, well, we already knew this. You know, we already had these five things here. We all we always knew they were gonna be really important central to our long term vision, but just not in the budget this year. You know, it's gonna have to be a long term thing. So when they get this support, they know what to do. They know to to to take care of the stormwater that's been affecting downtown. They know to increase their sewer capacity. You know? These are not exciting things for anyone not in the municipal government world. But Well, that's a good point, though. We talk about what we would do if we won the lottery. You know, that that kinda that kind of exercise in our I don't think anybody's
first conclusion would be, sewer investments or that you know, it's it's it's not a fun investment, but they realize the importance of it and what that means for future generations too. I mean, this this really kinda takes some, some pressure off the future to to solve these problems that in a lot of cases with infrastructure, needed to be done quite some time ago. It's just the lack of resources that, you know, we're all contending with. So we've been talking about, municipalities in the western part of the state. Let's let's head out east and and look there. What what are we what are we seeing? So moving a bit east,
you know, not quite to the coast, but one town that I was really impressed with their their approach to their American Rescue Plan dollars was Wilson. Wilson's innovative in a lot of what they do, and this is this is certainly been no difference. Their strategy, I would sum up as as breadth. They are funding 11 projects. And, you know, like we mentioned earlier that 11 projects. How towns know where they can improve, but, you know, priority shifts with the budget. So, you know, something's maybe a little down the line, but they know it could make a big impact. Wilson had these had these lined up. One of their 11, it involves their gig East, which is their entrepreneurial hub. It's already paid dividend. You know, they've they've they've started this thing couple years ago, I believe. But like any of these any of these initiatives, you know, there's a there's a level of instability, in its early stages dealing with funding. So of their 15, almost $16,000,000 that they received, a million went to that. And, you know, what the local leaders told me there is by by setting that foundation, you know, you're giving them a a good period of time where funding, it does not have to be a top priority. They don't have to go out asking for dollars. They can focus on building new businesses in town and working with the with the, education institutions there to to help launch these entrepreneurs, and they've seen great success in that. Second one of the Wilson projects, it's, definitely worth mentioning. And and, again, I'm glossing over what so many towns do, which is water and sewer. We got good large portion, several million dollars going towards that in Wilson. We got sewer outfall repair, water and sewer and strain storm drain improvements. But one thing I think that really speaks to their approach, which is very community oriented, is that they did a transit expansion. They're data oriented town. And one thing that they did, I believe it was before the pandemic and maybe even through the pandemic, was that they they they kept you know, they they got great information on their transit usage, who was using it, where, how often, how it was affecting commute times for people getting to work, for people getting to school, you know, the uses. And they took that, and they invested exactly in the areas that they felt needed the most improvement. You know, how can we reduce those commute times? How can we get people to school, not just, throwing money at a problem, but being very targeted in it? So that's a $2,000,000, investment that's, you know, hours expansion. They're adding additional vehicles. And, and by and through that, you know, they're seeing more demand. Mhmm. Seeing more usage. So, you know, it's a town that, it's a town that has done a great job of of working with its community to get this sort of information. And then, again, you get the support. You can make it happen. So that's happening in Wilson. That's a a very exciting one. And that's that's cool about the transit piece too that that they're they're working on closing gaps,
but this is also raising awareness for the service itself and can be an exercise for the public and the services, and and programs that municipal government offers.
Yeah. I mean, once you get yes. I think that's exactly right. Once you get them in the fold, you can see all these other community development, community outreach programs that the town offers. And, again, that's not unique to Wilson. They do a great job, but so many of our towns do that. They have services through different organizations. They partner with nonprofits. They they they do they do so many things that, that only once you get involved, you kind of understand the the level of of help and assistance and service that's available to them. So, Wilson is doing a great job at that through its through its dollars. I was just out in Wilson,
a couple weeks ago looking at the Whirligig Park there. It's kind of a magical place. I think that's
that really does speak to, you know, what we said. Getting getting people involved in the city. Getting people happy and proud about their city. Every time I go to Wilson, if I'm talking to someone I hadn't met before or learns that I'm visiting, it's the first thing they say. Yeah. You know? Go see the Whirly gigs. It's really a sight to see. Yeah. It draws attention. It gets people interested. It's it's a great park in itself. Always always happy to talk about Wilson. Where should we go next? Yeah. So let's go out to Havelock who, again, is gonna meet this theme of, meeting water and sewer needs, but doing it in a unique way and for unique reasons. So in Havelock, I think their approach is just at the center of what public service means, and that is stakeholder engagement. Right. So let's say two broadly two stakeholders. You got the population of Havelock, and then you got the the marine corps base. For the, the population side of things, there's a a tremendous economic development activity that the city sees, and that is in the, Highway 70 renovations that are going on. So, you know, if you don't know, it's it's the highway that goes right from the triangle to the coast, and it it's gonna go through Havelock. So it really presents an economic development opportunity there, you know, to start new businesses, to attract travelers into town, or even just get some some, some economic activity and roadside shops or whatever it may be. The the water infrastructure at the moment is not is not is not at the level it needs to be at to to build those businesses or to build the the, the commerce needed to to, you know, to really take advantage of the opportunity. So they're investing in that. And there's several other water and sewer projects that aren't going on in town, and Havoc's gonna use these dollars for it. But one thing that I found interesting in in how they selected their projects and and how they're pursuing them is that they well, they work so closely on everything with their, with that second stakeholder, with the marine corps base. Mhmm. Cherry Point. You know, it yep. That's right. It goes, you know, from upgrading infrastructure that's gonna support that airbase to even, you know, just making sure that no decisions potentially have any unforeseen consequences, that their priorities are always in line. And I just thought that was a really interesting way to to go about things. You know, we hear about stakeholder engagement all the time and think have, like, really exemplified that through their dollars. It's it's something where you think, oh, you know, a town gets a a got an economic development activity right over there, and they got this windfall of money here. You know, it's it's ripe for for quick decisions and for for a wish list, and it's just not what happens. It's it's it's leaders going through the the protocol of working with the community, of working with the most important, institutions in their community and coming up with strategic decisions together. So what's happening in Havlak, I thought was really impressive. It's, see, 16,000 full time residents. So just over $3,000,000 received and, you know, looking at looking at their list of of investments, it's it's clear that they're getting the most possible out of it. You know, several several water infrastructure projects, sewer upgrades, and, just all sorts of things that are really putting the town on a on a on a good trajectory.
Well, it's great to see the town emphasizing stakeholder engagement. I mean, especially with, the airbase Cherry Point being one of the, if not the largest Marine Corps Air Station in the world. I mean, it's, it's it's no small place. No. It's not. And, again, a definitive
a definitive institution in the area.
So what what other cities and towns have we seen do admirable jobs at stakeholder engagement?
Well, the most the I mean, I I have to imagine it's the, the most intensive community engagement effort in our state, and that's in the city of Durham. Their strategy was almost centered entirely on community engagement. You know, they made a they made a few, investments right off the bat to recover from the pandemic, you know, that included health measures and premium pay for its essential workers. But for its larger investments, it's just it's it's really remarkable how how much they leaned on the community. So it was a multiphase project, actually, four phases. It started with proposal development. So they they surveyed the community. They used some of their connections from previously done programs. In particular, it's participatory budgeting program, which is something that allows the community to vote on specific programs that can be included in the budget, each year, which has has been done with great success. They they actually worked with Greensboro on launching that.
Durham is a a we'll say very data driven city, very tech forward. It's cool to see them incorporate this. You know, in the past, we've talked about, you know, smart cities and data gathering and stuff like that. And Absolutely. And, you know, when we talk about smart cities, one of the one of the critiques of smart cities is that it is almost too data driven or that it doesn't take into account
community input or, you know, these matters of equity that Yeah. It's kinda cold data sometimes. So you're exactly right in that Durham does use data, but we can see that they they, they don't fall into that that pitfall of of not addressing community needs as well. So this four phase program, it's extensive. They they use their connections through the previously done programs to build relationships with the community. They surveyed them. They got a list of priorities. They got a list of project ideas. They worked with them to determine if they were eligible under, you know, US Treasury guidance for what American Rescue Plan dollars could be spent on. They developed a review committee. They took these projects, went through review committee. They developed a scorecard. The scorecard evaluated things like equity, you know, previously established city strategic goals. Was it community driven? What would administration look like? Mhmm. A a a full comprehensive review. And, you know, these are not these are not, requests coming internally from the department. These are coming from someone in the community. And I just thought it was Right. Extremely impressive that they put together such a process, such an official, formal, and legitimate, valid process for community input. And and and and knowing and it worked. They they received many different proposals, spoke with deputy city manager, Bertha Johnson. And, you know, this was a while ago in the spring. And at that time, they had spoken directly with over 4,000 community members and received,
over 80 submissions. That's an amazing return. I mean, Durham is not a a small town, but still getting more than 4,000 members of the community to participate and and have their voice heard. I mean, you know, one of the, sometimes classically, obviously, one of the criticisms of of government is, it looks like a concentration of power in a small number of people. But this is, you know, something just bringing in the whole community, inviting the whole community to say, you know, like, we we want your help with this. And which is something we see all all in communities across North Carolina, but but very cool to see it here and have this much success. Mhmm. It speaks to this
the the unique strategies being employed by the unique situations or, you know, to address the unique situations that these towns find themselves in. Durham is, you know, like a lot of triangle towns, growing quickly. They have also a a great a great history, you know, trying to take advantage of the growth, preserve that history, use this support as federal financial support, you know, roll roll that all up, and and and Durham is doing a quite an impressive job with its American Rescue Plan dollars. And one note here too that you had in,
in your your write up about Durham is that they also invited community members to submit proposals for specific projects funded by ARP funds. And that was an informal process, but the city got a lot of submissions out of that. That's really, really cool.
It it it really is. I mean, it speaks to you know, this was something that, the the city leadership mentioned too when I when I was speaking to them about this is this wasn't the result of they got the money. They and they asked people what they thought. Now these relationships have been fostered for years. Mhmm. And, you know, again, if we when we're talking about consistent themes across the state, that's just another thing we find that a lot of the preparation that's required or that, you know, that looks to be a prerequisite for success with the American Rescue Plan is already in place because it's things these towns have been doing for a long time. They've been preparing to address their biggest needs. They've been working with the community. They've been, you know, developing relationships with their biggest stakeholders. Yeah. They're they're ready. They it's, you know, it's why we say that when cities, especially North Carolina, get the chance to succeed, they they do. Because they're they're they're usually working with limited resources. So when they get a little bit more, it's quite clear how to proceed, and and and they really do a great job of it. Well, it just shows how
well spent this money was at at the the federal level where it originated, because it's not like this is just money, especially if if it's money where you have some good amount of latitude on how to spend it. It's not like it's just coming to these towns, and they're like, oh, yeah. I don't know.
You know, they they know what they need to do. That's right. They've they've had it on the books, and and this is their opportunity to go for it. And they're making great efficiency with it. It's been good to see that become clear through these case studies. Not that it was a surprise, but, you know, another thing that is worth mentioning that doesn't necessarily come through in the storytelling and the information sharing is just how many towns behind the scenes are working together to get this information, to share these ideas. You know, with the the league puts together events, and and so do our partners. And we work together to information sharing events, you know, direct outreach, help, services, anything that you need on the American Rescue Plan to determine, is this project eligible? Is how do I report this, you know, in my annual reports? How, should I account for this? What sort of staffing will I need? So many towns are doing this behind the scenes work. You know? So much of the preparation is there in terms of determining priority and knowing what the community needs and, you know, even knowing even even so far as in some towns is, like, having engineering plans already ready for a lot of these, infrastructure projects. But it still is a new it's a it's a new law. It's got its own unique set of guidelines, and our towns are diligent in making sure that they're following it right. There's hundreds of people joining, you know, these events that we throw in, you know, over the past you know, since the law's passages, the attendant has been in the thousands to make sure that they're following these rules to the tee. What else are we doing,
as a league to help continue this information? Like I said, it's the ARP is a it's a massive thing. It's not like we don't have questions about it from time to time. But, you know, we also have some some expertise. What are we doing with that? I think we have some events coming up.
That's right. So internally, you know, we have our we have a a team of experts that's down in the field helping answer questions. We have website, arp.nclm.org, and a email helpline, always open, arp@nclm.org. This month, though, we're we're going a step further. We're we're we're starting the, American Rescue Plan expert tour. So there we've brought together as many experts as as really there are in the state. We're working with, you know, different state departments, academic institutions, experts on every element of this act. And, we're doing four tour stops around, the state. Like, it starts in Hickory on September 8. Mhmm. Then it moves to Greensboro on September 21, Rocky Mount, October 12, and ending out east in Wallace on October 26. And we're pretty excited about this. You know, it's, we've we've we've held many American Rescue Plan events to date. But those have mostly been focused on information sharing, on getting people the most up to date information that they need. And and this one is gonna be very interactive. So we have help desks. If you if you have a specific question about a specific project or and how to specifically, you know, put that into your accounting software, however individualized it is your town, we can still answer it. Gonna have, you know, availability for you to sit down with an expert. We're gonna have panels of different experts answering your questions in a in a forum format. We're gonna have different towns sharing what they're doing. That's gonna, you know, allow some different ideas to flow. Bringing together regional partners to consider solutions, between counties, between different organizations. Really, every element of of this act of of what the American Rescue Plan can offer our state through our cities and towns is gonna be is gonna be is gonna be covered. And, it's gonna be led by our cities and towns who who know this thing best. So we're really, really looking forward to it. We're expecting big crowds and lots of lots of very interesting questions to be asked and answered. So it's gonna be a it's gonna be a great thing for our state. So that's the American Rescue Plan Expert Tour,
and that starts September 8 in Hickory, four stops around the state. Like Jack just said, September 8, Hickory. September 21, Greensboro. October 12, Rocky Mount. October 26, Wallace. And this is something that the league is doing in partnership with the, NC Association of Regional Councils of Government and the NC Pandemic, Recovery Office. And I believe you can find more information at arp.nclm.org, and we've been sending out, email blasts and just to make sure everybody's aware of this. But, yeah, we're excited. It's it's it's cool too that, you know, we've been seeing more in person events, knock on wood. But, you know, the the that energy level is is great to see everybody kinda come together, and we can share expertise and and kind of leave, a little bit more wise. You know, we can all feel, very expert and confident in
our American Rescue Plan plans. I guess we'll say it that way. That's right. You know, it's one thing to read these individualized case studies, and it's quite another to see them all in the same room together and to get the full picture of of just all the strategy and pursuits and, you know, really community oriented improvements going on around our state. It's, it's an impressive picture to see. And, so, yeah, we're really looking forward to getting back out there in person.
And, registration is required. Make sure, again, aarp.nclm.org is our hub for all things American Rescue Plan. You can find our events coming up. You can find, some of these case studies that, Jack and I have been talking about on this episode. And, and pretty much everything else. I mean, this is a pretty robust website, blog posts and things like that. So, make sure you visit that again, arp.nclm.org. Well, Jack, thank you so much for taking some time to, to talk with us about this and look at some of the the towns around the state. Absolutely. Thank you, Ben. It's been, it's been my pleasure. Thanks for listening, and thanks to Jack Cassidy who joined us on this episode. And we're curious, what creative or essential thing is your town doing with its American Rescue Plan allocation? Let me know. You can email me. My name is Ben Brown, and I'm at bbrown@nclm.org. That's bbrown@nclm.org. NCLM stands for North Carolina League of Municipalities, which makes this podcast possible. Working as one, advancing all, n cl m dot o r g. We hope to see you at the upcoming ARP expert tour, and we'll keep you posted through our usual publications. Thanks as always for your listenership and participation. We'll talk to you again soon for the league of municipalities. This has been Brown.