Plan drafted for Eau Claire's $13.5 million in ARPA funds

May 29—EAU CLAIRE — Helping to fill the new downtown transfer center funding gap, drilling a new well and creating affordable housing are among ways the city is proposing to use its share of federal COVID-19 recovery funds.

Earlier this month City Manger Stephanie Hirsch presented her proposal for how the city could use $13.5 million coming from the American Recovery Plan Act.

"The ARPA funding will make a large one-time investment that we hope will be transformative," Hirsch said.

The proposal includes addressing some funding gaps in Eau Claire that became prominent during the pandemic, but also projects for issues identified by resident surveys and the City Council.

The biggest recipient under the proposal would be the budget gap to finish construction of the transfer center, which would get $5 million from ARPA. In March the council approved a major increase in public spending for the structure, raising the local share of the project from $1.25 million to $9.55 million. At the time the council didn't vote on where the added money would come from, but identified ARPA as well as federal transit aids as potential sources.

Hirsch's proposal notes that construction price inflation caused in part by the pandemic led to the higher costs for the center. In addition to providing a hub for the city's bus system and public parking, the top of the structure will have three floors of privately-developed workforce housing — helping the city meet a goal of providing affordable housing.

Another $1 million in the ARPA proposal would go toward drilling a new well to make up for others that have PFAS contamination at the city's wellfield.

Affordable housing initiatives in the proposal include $1 million in seed money to go toward buying two buildings. Half of that would be used to help purchase a vacant motel, church or other building that could be turned into transitional housing for people who are chronically homeless. The other $500,000 would be used to buy another building to pilot a program for a limited equity cooperative, which would function similar to a condominium complex.

"Those are two of the best ideas in affordable housing," Hirsch said of the two methods of creating new units for low-income people.

Putting $450,000 toward three years of operating costs for a downtown daytime warming center for the homeless is also part of the city's proposal. That also asks the Eau Claire County government to contribute $300,000 from the ARPA money it is getting.

The city's ARPA funding would also create four new positions for three years under the proposal.

Two of those would be full-time employees — an ARPA funding coordinator and grant writer, and a project manager to run homeless initiatives.

One of the part-time positions, a business development project manager, would oversee a new $1.25 million fund for loans and technical assistance to businesses owned by under-represented people in the Chippewa Valley.

The other part-time position would run a $1.5 million grant fund for a new initiative the city hopes to create — the Children's Cabinet. That job will serve as coordinator of a group of shareholders that are already involved in youth development — schools, nonprofit organizations, hospitals and others. The goal is to bring these groups together to identify disparities in life outcomes for young people, come up with plans to change that and award grants for coordinated service delivery.

Hirsch said Eau Claire already has many programs to help youth, but the children that need them most sometimes "fall through the cracks."

"For Eau Claire it will be a matter of making sure everybody has access to those services," she said.

Hirsch acknowledges that after the ARPA funds run out for the four jobs, the city would need to find new sources of funding — ideally grants — for them to continue.

Council President Terry Weld said his colleagues were excited to see Hirsch's proposal.

"It was very well received," he said. "Just having that direction, that place to start was beneficial."

There still could be some changes to the proposal before it is approved by the City Council.

After their first look at the proposal on May 10, the council is looking to hold a public hearing in mid-June on it and then discuss it more before approving a spending plan for the ARPA funds.

The city has until the end of 2024 to designate exactly how the funds will be used and until the end of 2026 to spend them.