City of Coppell works to allocate remaining ARPA funds

Coppell Gazette
By Arianna Morrison | Star Local Media
January 2, 2024

During a Coppell City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 9, council met to discuss and provide staff with direction regarding the currently unallocated balance of funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act.

In 2021, the City of Coppell received $10.2 million as part of the ARP. At the Sept. 14, 2021 work session, staff presented information regarding the guidelines for eligible uses of ARPA funds and discussed preliminary projects that met the eligibility criteria. In the next three years, city council identified initial priorities for projects and amended the priority projects for ARP funding as circumstances changed.

Priority projects were completed for less funds than originally allocated, which is why city council is coming back to provide staff with direction on the unallocated ARPA funds. The city has until Dec. 2024 to obligate the funds to priority projects and has until Dec. 2026 for the funds to be expended.

To date, the City of Coppell’s priority projects that have been completed with the ARPA funds include business assistance programs, employee lump sum, Meadows mental health study, reconfiguration of court clerk areas, pavement replacement at Creekview, Moore Road Park Boardwalk, and over 65 utility billing credits. These projects add up to almost $5 million.

In progress projects include Metrocrest Services, Woven Clinic, Magnolia Park Trail, parking lot covers for police department vehicles, fire station repairs, fiber expansion, and Eastlake deceleration lane. These projects add up to almost $3.5 million.

Remaining ARPA funds for the city is just short of $1.85 million, after completed and in progress project funds are deducted.

Coppell Deputy City Manager Traci Leach recommended that the remaining ARPA funds be allocated toward Magnolia Park bid flexibility, security improvements, Life Safety Park concrete sealant/re-striping, refurbishment and modernization of the city command vehicle, residential rehabilitation grants (pilot program), development strategy assessment, and electric vehicle fleet infrastructure strategy assessment. This would leave a remaining balance of $178,530.

Council recommended that Leach move forward with the proposed projects.

Moving forward, Leach would come back to council in May 2024 with a proposal on how to obligate all remaining balances after deducting completed, in progress and proposed priority projects.