It has been one year since President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
The economic stimulus bill was a lifeline for cities like Laurel-a chance to speed up the recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Craig A. Moe and the City Council allocated more than $11 million dollars to those within the City of Laurel, who were heavily impacted by the pandemic. Within the next year, we have plans to distribute an additional $13 million to help those in need.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the ways the City of Laurel used its ARPA funds. We:
- Allocated $300,000 to Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) to assist Laurel residents with overdue water and sewer bills
- Assisted the Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services (LARS) with $250,000 for their emergency services program
- Co-sponsored an Apprenticeship Readiness Program with $100,000 of ARPA funds
- Distributed $11,648 to food pantries which provided 11,000 meals
- Covered $125,000 of overdue rent and mortgage payments
- Distributed 4,000 COVID-19 at home test kits.
In addition to the activities listed above, the Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) was awarded $1.7 million to distribute within the business community. Currently, applications are being accepted and program guidance can be found at https://www.cityoflaurel.org/ecd/business-and-property-development-programs.
Mayor Moe says he is grateful to Congress and the President for providing the direct fiscal assistance to Laurel.
“Strong cities are the backbone of this country,” Mayor Moe said.
“The ARPA funds we received have gone a long way to ensuring that we will come back stronger than ever after this pandemic.”
The City of Laurel will continue to communicate with residents and business owners as future ARPA funds are allocated to us to continue our recovery.
For more information about the City’s ARPA efforts, visit our website
https://www.cityoflaurel.org/arpa.
