County Board gets update on American Rescue Plan task force

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Work continues by the task force assembled to disburse American Rescue Plan funds that the county was awarded.

The task force has been organizing how they’ll disburse the funds and created a plan for determining where the funds are going, coordinating with other municipalities that were awarded ARPA funds.

Knox Board Chair Jared Hawkinson said that it would be a few months before any funds would be disbursed.

“Three, four months before any substantial action is taken. We want to make sure all our documents, all of our people involved, the experts come in if we want to come with ideas and we make want to make sure we’re staying in compliance with the federal government — that we can actually do that. Then we go into how do we do that, and how to implement that.”

The task force was created in May that was to be made up of county board members as well as members of the general public.

Hawkinson told the board that the funds had to be spent by December 31st, 2026, and allocated by December 31st of 2024, leaving plenty of time to thoroughly vet their plans and coordinate with other municipalities that were awarded ARPA money.

“We’re going to reach out and have municipality liaisons. That way we’re making sure that the City of Galesburg or City of Abingdon has money that they’re going to be utilizing — that we aren’t also trying to do the same thing and maybe we can pool our resources together to make a better outcome and utilization of the ARPA funds.”

The task force is a non-binding group so any recommendations made by the will need approval by the finance committee and then the full county board.

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