URBANA, Ill. (WAND) - The Urbana City Council will meet tonight to discuss the plans for the ARPA funds.
The city of Urbana received approximately $12.9 million dollars in state and local recovery funds. They have created a concept plan for how they are choosing to use this money in the community.
“The city’s ARPA funds are a part of the allocation that was made when congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in 2020. These were funds that were given to municipalities and cities to respond to the Covid pandemic." said city project manager, William Kolschowsky.
The 8 plans include:
1. Improvement of accessibility of public recreation space and youth programming,
2. Increasing support for community violence intervention
3. Reducing housing costs for those that need it most
4. Increasing availability and affordability of mental health services
5. Increasing availability and affordability of food
6. Increasing job training and placement opportunities
7. Providing relief and support for local businesses
8. Investing in infrastructure to increase community health, safety, and future resilience.
This is only a draft and if there are no substantial changes, this concept plan can be approved as early as next Monday.
The city has also taken input from the community as well. This past Spring, residents had the opportunity to comment during a meeting or an online survey.
“The community input portion of the concept plan was actually done in the Spring when the city had an extensive public engaging process where we had an online survey, and we had multiple meetings dedicated to gathering public input for the priorities that people wanted the city to have.” said Kolschowsky.
For more information, visit:ccrpc.gitlab.io/urbana-arpa/concept
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