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County of Door ARPA Spending Update

The Door County Board of Supervisors continues to spend the county’s $5,374,185 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, making the latest commitments during its May 24 meeting.

The projects being funded are not surprises. Some of the dollar amounts are slightly different, but all the projects to date were on a short list of priorities the supervisors first considered in January when they learned what the ARPA allocation would be. 

The three latest commitments made during the board’s May meeting included a $500,000 donation to a new nonprofit lending corporation that’s trying to ease the housing shortage in the affordable rental market (see the related story in this issue).

The second was approving a two-year contract with Merjent for nonnative phragmites control. No fiscal-impact amount was on the resolution that officially approved the contract, but Beth Hanson, county conservationist, reminded the supervisors that their previously approved commitment of ARPA funding for the project was a total of $290,000 over the next five years. 

The third allocation of ARPA funding in May was a $347,000 grant for United Way of Door County to fund 20 hours of the weekly schedule of a new child care coordinator for 36 months. The position is expected to support the recruitment, retention and training of child care providers throughout the peninsula and offer start-up/expansion grants for home-based child care. The activities would augment, but not duplicate, the child care initiatives that United Way of Door County will support with a $3.5 million grant that it was awarded late last year.