MONROE — At the Aug. 10 Green County Board of Supervisors meeting, discussion on what to do with federal dollars took the main stage.
The American Rescue Plan Act, passed March 11, 2021, set aside $1.9 trillion in relief to American citizens, businesses and local governments in an effort to curb some of the side effects on the economy brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each county across the nation is being awarded funds. The state of Wisconsin had $1.9 billion allocated, of which $7 million will come to Green County. The money needs to be obligated by the end of 2024.
“You don’t need to be in a rush. You’ve got lots of time to think this through and make a wise decision,” said Mark O’Connell, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Counties Association. O’Connell and Dale Knapp, WCA Director of Research and Analytics, spoke at length to the board. Knapp said the funds would be the equivalent of a “windfall” for the county.
O’Connell said there are five areas the funds could be spent on:
● Support public health expenditures
● Address the negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency
● Replace lost revenue
● Provide premium pay for essential workers
● Invest in water/sewer/broadband infrastructure — which is getting by far the most attention
“I’m going to advocate strongly that you … focus a great deal of attention and energy on the lost revenue. Why? Because if we can prove lost revenue — and, by the way, you can prove lost revenue — under that category there are very few strings attached. We have lots of flexibility,” O’Connell said.
The county cannot spend the money on pensions or tax reductions. It could all be allocated to a singular project, such as hard infrastructure, or in a la carte fashion with multiple or all categories.
“You can spend some in every category or all in one category — there is no preference,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell then posed the question: What to spend the money on?
“This is one-time money. It’s not coming back,” O’Connell said. “Common sense would tell us to spend one-time money on a one-time thing — a structure, a promotion of the area, something where you can get a return on your investment. Something that 10 years from now we can look back on and say, ‘I remember when we spent $7 million back in 2021, 2022, 2023, and we’re still getting the benefit from it. That was a good expenditure.”
While the funds need to be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024, the money won’t need to be spent for a full year after that — Dec. 31, 2025.
Victoria Solomon, Community Resource Development Educator with UW-Extension Green County, and Cara Carper, Executive Director of Green County Develop Corp., have worked together to gain some guidance as ARPA first came together. The pair developed a community survey to gauge what local residents wanted to spend the money on.
“We had community members with very different perspectives — and that’s very normal,” Solomon said.
Some of the “values” identified by community residents were:
● Sustainable
● Fiscally Responsible
● Equitable
● Accessible
● Efficient
“The majority of respondents also shared that they are not looking for a Band-Aid — they want their local elected officials to consider immediate decisions” that would affect the county within three years, Solomon said, as well as some long-term implications.
“There’s many conversations that are going to be going on over the next couple of years over these ARPA funds,” Carper said. “The clerks from our municipalities, cities and towns are getting lots of emails and lots of calls from people saying ‘Hey, I know how we should spend our ARPA funds; I know how we should spend your ARPA funds; we think this would be a great use for your ARPA funds.’”
Also, on the docket was rezoning a small parcel of land, approximately 0.57 acres south of Monroe in Clarno Township. Land owner Paul Beach and his tenant, son Jeremy Beach, requested May 19 that the small parcel be changed from an agricultural district to a commercial zoning district for the use of seasonal and temporary retail sales of fermented malt beverage for on-premise consumption.
Jeremy Beach runs Cheese City Beer Farm, located on Honey Creek Road. Cheese City Beer Farm produces Farm to Table beer with 100% of the ingredients coming directly from the farm itself — the farm of which is in its fifth generation with the Beach family. As of now, he grows hops and other ingredients onsite and ships them offsite to be brewed.
“It’s basically going to be a little tent and travel trailer” with designated off-street parking said Adam Wiegel, Zoning Administrator.
The motion passed on a voice vote without dissent.
The next day, Cheese City Beer Farm announced on their Facebook page that they had been approved for the change.
“We’re expecting to operate like a pop-up beer garden starting mid-late September, so stay tuned for more info!” the business announced in its social media post.
