The Soldotna City Council enacted an ordinance that would increase estimated revenues and appropriations by $3,064.29 in the COVID-19 Relief Special Revenue Fund for additional grant funds received from the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The city previously appropriated a grant in the amount of $1,139,130 from the DCCED. The funds are available as part of the federally approved American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
City Manager Stephanie Queen:
“This ordinance has an accompanying memo from Finance Director Melanie Imholte. Essentially, this is funds that was either declined or, in one case, a nonresponsive municipality did not receive the original allocation of ARPA funds. It was based on a formula basis, strict formula basis. The state recently contacted the city of Soldotna and let us know that they were redistributing those funds among the remaining 141 municipalities according to that same formula. That resulted in a potential increase of our ARPA funding of $3,064.29. The ordinance would appropriate that with the previously appropriated funds, of which the city has not yet utilized any of those funds.”
The funds would be split in two tranches of $1,532.14 each. The City was made aware that it would be allocated additional funds through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Five municipalities declined their Non-Entitlement Units of Government (NEU) funds and one was nonresponsive, leaving $115,868.29 to be redistributed across the remaining 141 municipalities on a per-capita basis.
The ordinance was enacted unanimously.