Luzerne County receives 140 American Rescue Plan applications

Now that the application deadline has passed, a Luzerne County consultant is reviewing all requests for the county’s American Rescue Plan funding to determine which meet federal eligibility requirements, county Budget/Finance Division Head Brian Swetz said Thursday.

Formal online applications were due at 5 p.m. Thursday. The county received 140 applications prior to that time.

The county has approximately $95.9 million in American Rescue Plan funding not yet allocated for projects or programs.

Intended to “lay the foundation for a strong and equitable economic recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan funding can be used for a range of purposes, including water and sewer infrastructure projects, broadband enhancements, public health programs and assistance for small businesses and nonprofits, officials said.

Columbia, Maryland-based Booth Management Consulting designed the online application portal and will ensure complicated regulations are followed so awards withstand future federal auditing, officials said.

During the application process, Booth provided technical assistance to more than 100 prospective county applicants, Swetz said.

He expects a Booth representative will attend council’s Sept. 27 work session to provide an overview of the eligible applications received in various categories and the total amounts requested.

The county administration will need several weeks to form a panel that will review all applications and make a recommendation on which should be funded in each category, Swetz said, stressing council has the final say.

It’s still unclear if the 11-member council will primarily rely on the administration’s input or get involved in picking each eligible entity that will receive funding or be rejected.

Council wrestled with this task on a smaller scale in 2016 when it received 16 applications far exceeding the $70,782 in leftover natural gas recreation funding available for earmarks.

Instead of fully funding a few projects, a council majority provided small equal shares to all 16. Then-councilman Robert Schnee had proposed the approach after predicting he and his colleagues could spend hours debating the merits of each request and still be unable to reach majority consensus.

In a preliminary American Rescue application process earlier this year designed to measure interest, the county received more than $186.8 million in funding requests — $171.58 million from more than 100 outside entities and $15.26 million from county government departments, the administration has said.

Pre-application requests from nonprofits, community organizations and local government entities sought funding for projects aimed at helping youth, small businesses, the homeless, public health, animals and historic structures. There also were requests to help fund public safety needs, land preservation and critical water and sewer infrastructure.