NW Wyoming News

Albany recently issued the following announcement.

The City of Albany American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Leadership Team is excited to announce the City received 147 proposals from the community totaling $141 million in requests for $25 million of the City’s ARPA funding by the pre-application deadline of Tuesday, March 1.

Of the 147 proposals totaling $141 million in requests:

• $48.1 million was requested for Housing, Transportation, and Community Revitalization (total allocation available: $8 million)
• $35.4 million was requested for Education, Workforce, and Human Services (total allocation available: $7 million)
• $26.8 million was requested for Supporting the Public Health Response (total allocation available: $4 million)
• $17.4 million was requested for Small Business Support (total allocation available: $3 million), and
• $13.1 million was requested for Travel, Tourism, Hospitality, and Arts Recovery (total allocation available: $3 million)

Nearly 52% of all applications were submitted by non-profit organizations, 16.5% were submitted by businesses/for-profits, 23.8% were submitted by City of Albany Departments, and 7.8% were submitted by other types of entities.

More than 88% of applicants expressed an interest in being connected with partners – one of the core principles for the City’s ARPA Funding laid out by the City’s COVID Recovery Task Force. 47% of applications included identified partnerships, and 40% of the business/for-profit applicants self-identified as MWBE.

It is clear businesses, non-profits, and other organizations are coming together to support the City of Albany. Based on the outpouring of applications received and the Leadership Team’s continued mission to both meet the deep community need and get the funding into Albany’s neighborhoods as quickly as possible, the City of Albany has announced the following application process changes:

• Pre-applications received by the Tuesday, March 1 deadline will go through the full evaluation for funding first;
• The portal to the pre-application process will be closed on Friday, March 11 at 12:00pm. While all applications will be reviewed, those received after the Tuesday, March 1 deadline and before Friday, March 11 at 12:00pm may only be considered for the full evaluation process should funding remain available after the initial evaluation process.

A cross-section of community and civic leaders will review the proposals and provide feedback to the City’s ARPA Leadership Team. The Leadership Team will review the proposals and feedback from the community and civic leaders and invite select proposals to submit full applications for further review. Proposals will be scored on a variety of criteria, including equity, collaboration, and sustainability.

If you would like to be involved in the evaluation process, the City of Albany is still seeking volunteers to help grade and interview applicants. Anyone interested in applying should visit www.AlbanyForAll.com to sign up no later than Friday, March 11, 2022.

The City’s ARPA Leadership Team is comprised of Mayor Kathy Sheehan, City Treasurer Darius Shahinfar, Common Council President Corey Ellis, Common Council Pro Tempore Kelly Kimbrough, Common Council Majority Leader Ginnie Farrell, Commissioner of Administrative Services Rachel McEneny, and Corporation Counsel Marisa Franchini, Esq.

President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law on March 11, 2021, after significant advocacy from across the nation, including by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Congressman Paul Tonko.

Original source can be found here.