News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The American Rescue Plan shifting into its final phase as all local funding must be allocated by the end of 2024.
White County Finance Director Chad Marcum said federal grants bring their own layer of complexity but his department is familiar with handling capital projects. Marcum said White County’s funding has already been earmarked and the goal is now to make the next deadline requiring all ARP money to be spent by the end of 2026.
“It’s really just working with engineers and contractors and the utility districts and other interested parties just to try to get things finalized,” Marcum said. “I mean, it’s kind of pushing folks to make sure that everybody knows that this deadline’s out there and that we’ve got to meet it and that there’s really no wiggle room in that.”
Marcum said one of his main focuses is making sure that everyone is properly tracking their expenditures because the grants are all reimbursable. Marcum said his department is using a separate fund to account for the projects in order to be as transparent as possible with the federal government, state, and local community.
“Also it helps from an internal accounting standpoint,” Marcum said. “Just to make sure that those projects are accounted for correctly and all the costs associated with such are put in place so whenever we capitalize it and put it on the books after the project’s complete we’ve got everything there.”
Marcum said the county will not have financial issues as the funding dries up because it did not use the money for any reoccurring expenses. Marcum said the county is currently moving forwards with a series of water line projects and its new health department thanks to the money.
“We may not be able to do some of the bigger projects that we’ve done these past couple of years just straight out of local tax money but we have been able to get those done,” Marcum said. “But as far as an ongoing problem, it won’t be.”
