The Las Cruces City Council will meet at 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, in Council Chambers at City Hall, 700 N. Main St., for a regularly scheduled meeting.
City Council will consider the adoption of a Resolution that would authorize the City to accept a budget adjustment allocating the second tranche of American Recovery Plan Act funding. The proposed budget adjustment would be made through an amendment to the City’s Adopted Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Budget and the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Capital Improvement Plan.
In response to the economic hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act provided direct allocation to aid in recovery efforts. The City was allocated $24,759,826.
The first tranche of funding was received on May 19, 2021, from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The second tranche of $12,379,913, was received June 13, 2022, in an equal amount.
The funding is intended to be used for the following objectives, as defined in the Act:
- To support urgent COVID-19 response efforts.
- To continue to decrease spread of the virus and bring the pandemic under control.
- To replace lost public sector revenue to strengthen support for vital public services and help retain jobs.
- To support immediate economic stabilization for households and businesses and address systemic public health and economic challenges that have contributed to the in-equal impact of the pandemic.
Several City Council work sessions were held. City staff presented recommendations from City management to allocate the entire $24.8 million.
City Council recommended the funding be allocated in the following manner: $2 million to support public health emergency response, $6.9 million to replace public sector revenue loss for capital needs, $11.4 million to address negative economic impacts, $3.5 million to improve water and sewer infrastructure, and $1 million for premium pay.
This budget adjustment will allocate the second tranche of funding into the ARPA defined priority areas, which is, $1.2 million for public health and safety, $8.1 for negative economic impacts, and $3.1 million for water and sewer projects.
The Council also will consider adoption of a Resolution to accept various grant awards from the New Mexico Department of Transportation, 2022 Legislative Capital Outlay, for improvements to Las Cruces International Airport, East Mesa roadway and drainage improvements, and improvements to the Spruce Avenue and north Telshor Boulevard intersection.
These appropriations are administered by NMDOT on behalf of the state. The award for Las Cruces International Airport improvements is $500,000 and will be used to acquire land and rights of way, and to plan, design, construct, renovate, purchase, furnish, equip, and install infrastructure improvements at the airport.
The resulting 2022 legislative award for East Mesa roadway and drainage improvements is $100,000. The funding will be used to acquire rights of way and to plan, design, construct, and improve roads, including utilities and flood control, on the East Mesa.
The legislative award for traffic signal and intersection improvements for the N. Telshor and Spruce intersection is $650,000. The funding will be used to plan, design, construct, equip, and install improvements at the intersection.
No matching City funds are required for the legislative appropriations.
The NMDOT process requires City Council to pass a resolution to accept the awards and related requirements of the award, to include as applicable, an assumption of ownership, liability, and maintenance of the stated scope of work, or related amenities and funding for the project, and to adopt the projects as priorities. NMDOT requires this resolution prior to providing the City with a fully executed grant agreement.
The fully executed grant agreements will be brought before Council in a separate action to accept the grant awards into the City's fiscal year budget and amend the fiscal year's Capital Improvement Plan.
The agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting is available online at https://lascruces.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=370.
Monday’s meeting will be televised live on Comcast Cable channel 20 and will be available in high definition on Comcast Cable channel 928. The meeting also will be available online at clctv.com and at YouTube.com/clctv20.