Before the pandemic, there were a lot more residents who enjoyed the daily Council on Aging-backed senior lunches hosted at Port Huron’s Palmer Park Recreation Center.
These days, just a handful regularly attend, catching up and cracking jokes — like how they’re “vintage” but, of course, not old — at collapsible tables in the center’s large upper-level activity room.
But unlike before, the facility itself has seen some major upgrades, and the lunch attendees have noticed.
“This really hasn’t been improved in a long time,” said Port Huron resident Larry Stineman. “They had a leak in the roof. The heating system was bad. The air-conditioning system didn’t work. … It just needed TLC.”
He and others said they appreciate the center to gather.
“The camaraderie and the people — somebody to talk to and get yourself out of the house, get your day started,” Stineman said.
Those interior needs, totaling more than $800,000, were wrapped up in a $4 million 2021 City Council-approved plan to address capital improvements at Port Huron facilities, mark the biggest expenditure financed with the city’s share of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Local governments have until 2024 to designate how they use their piece of the COVID-driven stimulus package and two more years after to officially spend it.
By the end of September this year, however, close to a year and a half since receiving funds, the city of Port Huron had already identified uses for over $16.8 million of the more than $18 million it received.
Meanwhile, St. Clair County, the recipient of $31 million, still has over $23 million left.
Now, where other communities in the county are in the process runs the gamut, as the methodology to prioritize projects has become as varied as the uses of the funds overall.
Port Huron City Manager James Freed said their plans were purposefully practical — and would continue to be.
“It’s not sexy,” he said, “but it’s essential government.”
High above the ice at McMorran Arena last week, crews were still at work upgrading what they called the steam system in one of multiple air-handling units in the rafters.
“Most of them didn’t even work. They were seized up, so we couldn’t properly ventilate the building,” Freed said Tuesday. “… The ARP money, we paid these guys to come in and get the system back and functioning properly. So, we were paying excessive amounts in utility costs because we couldn’t properly manage the heat and air in the building.”
The entertainment complex was one of the other city facilities accommodated in the $4 million package approved last year — the other being a public works building — and saw similar basic overhaul upgrades as Palmer Park but at the larger total cost of more than $2.6 million.
That also included control upgrades, a new fire detection system, boiler and chiller upgrades, and more. The public works site, located on Bancroft Street, needed lighting and mechanical upgrades.
Other major ARP allocations — both officially green-lit and informally earmarked — have included $1.5 million in renovations for the fire department’s northern station, $1.2 million to support park enhancement and redevelopment, another $1.5 million toward one-time hazard pay to city employees after $564,300 was already funded, and $2 million unspent but penciled in for phase two parking garage improvements at the Municipal Office Center.
The latter is in addition to $565,000 already proposed for MOC repairs, range from replacing its east elevator to stair tread and accessibility repairs.
Remaining ARP uses, including those that are fully or partially funded, committed by City Council, or verbally committed, are as follows:
The city of Port Huron still has more than $1 million left of its ARPA allocation.
Freed said there remain a couple of proposals out in the community that could be potential uses for the funds.
Among them is addressing the lack of facilities to aid people who are or are at risk of becoming homeless. Blue Water Area Rescue Mission closed its shelters last March.
“I think that addressing the homeless population is something that we’re really focused on,” Freed said. “I know the county is, as well. But it’s a lot more complex issue than people think. Who’s going to operate, who’s going to assume liability, it’s finding the operator who can work with the state on rapid rehousing. The model of the old homeless shelter is changing.”
Kathy Swantek, a retired director for Blue Water Development Housing who’s spearheading much of the discussion, said that a community subcommittee formed after BWARM’s closure has officially decided against buying the nonprofit’s existing 24th Street building.
More finalized details were expected to be announced in the coming weeks, and she anticipated the city would play a financial role.
“Right now, we have a pastor from Operation Transformation that is dialoguing with local churches. Our expectation is that there will be a number of churches — we don’t know how many at this point — that will step up to the plate and provide temporary shelter for people during the upcoming winter months,” she said. “That’s our (short-term) plan.
“Our plan for long-term resolution of this issue is to continue to move forward with other nonprofit shelter providers to actually find a location and either lease or purchase and have that in place definitely for next year.”
American Rescue Plan Board Report by Jackie Smith on Scribd
A year after they agreed to each take ARPA funds back to their districts, St. Clair County’s seven commissioners have all made vastly different uses of $500,000 of the county’s $31 million.
St. Clair County Board Chairman Jeff Bohm gave his entire cut to the EDA, specifying it be used on tourism in District 5. A $400,000 grant was in turn announced for the developing St. Clair Boardwalk Theatre this summer, and EDA CEO Dan Casey said the rest may also go toward the development.
Jorja Baldwin, the board’s vice chairperson, has more than any other commissioner left to spend at $383,000.
But she said that doesn’t mean she has no uses in mind. One of them, like Commissioner Lisa Beedon, was the Fort Gratiot Hospital renovations at the Port Huron Museums’ Fort Gratiot Light Station campus — something she hoped to bring to the board for approval in November.
Then, Baldwin said $200,000 was verbally allocated to Burtchville Township to address a “pretty significant water problem,” while also hoping to leverage access to other funds through state and federal legislators’ offices.
“All to see if we can get money to help get that water line in,” she said. “I haven’t specifically spent it on that yet because we’ve put in for so many grants that we may be able to get the entire thing covered.”
Aside from the $3.5 million designated among commissioners, just over another $1 million has been designated or used for internal county department projects, ranging in cost from $3,000 to $225,000.
The combination leaves the vast majority of the county’s stimulus funds with just $7.85 million attributed to projects.
“The department requests were approved in 2021. Each department was given the opportunity to submit projects they felt would be eligible,” County Administrator Karry Hepting said in an email. “The projects were then reviewed by administration staff to make sure they met the allowable criteria under the act, then eligible projects were taken to the BOC (board of commissioners) for approval.”
The county board has already advocated for using much of the COVID stimulus to spearhead the construction of new infrastructure along an 11-mile corridor of 26 Mile Road or Marine City Highway to support future economic development, while also taking advantage of the expanding population in nearby northern Macomb County.
Bohm maintains the county as “the only one” with the ability to spearhead the development of water or sewer infrastructure to support that kind of growth.
A study to develop a comprehensive plan for the corridor was funded last year — the results for which are expected in the coming weeks — and feedback from members of the public has been interlaced into the process.
But how and how much of the $23 million left would be utilized as part of it remains unclear.
In August, one county commission candidate proposed a three-phase system. Commissioner Dave Rushing referenced the idea earlier this month, advocating for the formation of a subcommittee to handle it.
Baldwin said she’s been supportive of the process so far. And she compared the need to plan for eventual developments — be it residential, industrial, commercial, or something else — to the emergence of the mall in Fort Gratiot and 24th Avenue commercial corridor, as well as the resulting catchup from local government.
Still, she said it may be too soon for commissioners to break down the process.
“He’s assuming that’s not already in the works. I believe that it is,” Baldwin said, pointing to the typical planning process for all projects county administration follows. “So, I don’t think that’s a new concept as far as how to spend the rest of the money. … It’s a cart before the horse.”
“I don’t really have any opinion on it until I see a study,” she said. “If the study says this is viable, then yes, I think we absolutely have to have some kind of vetting process in how did we get here and why this is the best use of the money. But for right now, it could be pie-in-the-sky.”
Either way, Bohm said there will be plenty of time for the board to talk about it, and for the public to provide additional feedback.
“I think once the new board comes on board, we’re going to be talking about how do we want to spend the funds,” he said. “.. I’ve always been talking from day one about infrastructure, making investments in infrastructure, but then, making investments that have a payback associated with them. So, we’re not just spending all that money and then that money never gets to come back to the county.”
While the totals didn’t rival the millions for the city of Port Huron or St. Clair County, every other community also received at least some funding.
For some, depending on the population size, that American Rescue Plan allocation was in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
On the higher end, Clay and Kimball townships were each a recipient in the $900,000 range with Port Huron Township and Marysville over $1 million. Fort Gratiot received just over $1.1 million.
Marysville Finance Director Mike Booth said it was being utilized to support the City’s general governmental services but didn’t specify how.
In Port Huron Township, Supervisor Bob Lewandowski said they hadn’t made any final decisions, though discussion had arisen for using funds to bolster water infrastructure, or “possibly water meters.”
“Right now, it’s as needed,” he said. “But we’re probably, I would say next summer, going to step it up and start replacing more of them more frequently.”
Supervisor Artie Bryson said they’re still trying to gather information and prioritize needs in Clay Township. So far, they’ve spent just $90,000 on job retention for local first responders.
“We’ve got an area … that doesn’t have broadband we want to extend it to,” he said. “We’re also looking at using it for leverage for different grants to fix our sewer and water infrastructure.”
For Gratiot Supervisor Rob Crawford said they’re in the process of developing a plan to redevelop property off Parker Road for recreation projects, using ARP funds wherever possible to meet matching grant requirements.
“For example … we want to put an application in to build pickleball courts,” he said. “We got six pickleball courts on our plan with a pavilion, parking area, and roadway to get to it right across from the dog park. (That part of it is) probably going to be 250 to 300 thousand, so if I can get part of that covered with a grant, then, I can use ARPA funds to complete the development.”
Kimball Township Supervisor Rob Usakowski didn’t return a call for comment last week.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
