City Council Work Session September 14, 2022 - ARPA Funding Town Hall

CITY of LA GRANDE

MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT

The La Grande City Council will host a virtual Townhall meeting on Wednesday, September 14^th, beginning at 6:00 p.m. to share information and solicit public input regarding how to allocate just over $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.  The City Council met on June 13^th in a Work Session to review seventeen project proposals from City Staff totaling over $7 million.  The City of La Grande has $3,022,172 available to spend, and it must be committed by December 31, 2024, and spent by December 31, 2026. 

During the Work Session, the Council asked questions about the projects, which included eleven separate street and road projects totaling $2,768,850; $1.5 million for an Eastside Housing Water and Sewer Infrastructure Project which would construct the primary water and sewer distribution lines along the border of a future proposed housing project that could add over 200 new residential housing lots; $150,000 to assist La Grande Main Street Downtown implement the 2017 Main Street Refresh Plan over the next three years; $30,000 for Destination Retail Development which would help strengthen La Grande businesses; $155,000 for the purchase of a Wildland Fire Engine designed to fight wildfires; $650,000 for land acquisition for a potential new La Grande Police Station; and $2 million towards a new Recreation Center that would be used to leverage additional funds. 

While no decisions are made at Council Work Sessions, the Councilors conducted an exercise to help prioritize the projects by allocating $3.2 million of “dots” each to the various projects.  The City’s Department Directors also participated by allocating $1 million each.  The top ranked projects totaled $2,919,750 and were:

Resurfacing 16^th Street from Gekeler Lane to Washington Avenue; acquiring land for a new Police Station;  the Eastside Housing infrastructure Project; purchasing the Wildland Fire Engine; and Resurfacing 12^th Street from Washington to G Avenue.  The project “on the funding bubble” was resurfacing N Avenue from Washington to 4^th Street. 

Although the June Work Session was open to the public and available to watch online, there weren’t any members of the community in attendance.  The City Council is very interested in engaging the public to share details about the projects under consideration and hear from the citizens of La Grande before they finalize their decision.  Those who would like to provide questions or comments in advance of the Townhall meeting are encouraged to email them to City Manager Robert Strope at rstrope@cityoflagrande.org or to ARPA@cityoflagrande.org before 5:00 p.m. on September 9^th.  All questions and comments received will be addressed during the Townhall meeting. 

The meeting will be shown live on Charter Communications channel 180, on the La Grande Alive website at https://eoalive.tv/city-events/ and on the Eastern Oregon Alive.TV Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/EOAliveTV.  The public can make comments or ask questions during the Townhall using the comments feature on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EOAliveTV. 

Below is a list of the projects in preliminary priority order based on the June Work Session: