Cascade County Commissioners voted during their Aug. 12 meeting to reallocate some remaining ARPA funds to previously approved projects.

Commissioners met in July to review ongoing projects and since some projects weren’t completed and some came in under budgeted, determined that they could reallocate those remaining American Rescue Plan, or federal COVID relief, funds to previously approved projects that needed additional funding.

Commissioners and county staff determined that given the federal timelines and regulations, any remaining funds had to be applied to projects previously approved for ARPA funding and couldn’t go to new projects.

County reviews ARPA project progress

The county received a direct allocation of $15,804,392 of ARPA funds, which were designed to help address COVID’s impact and were based partially on population.

Commissioners used a portion of those funds toward county projects, but allocated some to other area governmental agencies, nonprofits and water and sewer districts.

Since then, many of the projects have been completed and several more are nearing completion with some still in progress.

The following projects are expected to be completed in the next few months and potentially come in under budget:

• Sheriff’s Office evidence/storage building
• emergency generator for the annex
• Four Seasons arena roof replacement

County, city progressing on ARPA funded projects [2024]

The following projects aren’t moving forward or have left over funds:

• Windy Acres Water replacement well
• Belt Library community room addition
• Great Falls Public Library front doors replacement

Commissioners voted to reallocate the remaining funds to previously approved projects with:

• $59,903.68 to Two Buttes Water System
• $209,500 to Centreville Public Schools

Any funds remaining after those those fixed allocations will be expended in order of priority to the following projects:

• county phone system upgrades
• jail camera upgrades
• jail booking remodel