Fort Worth is at an impasse: spend all federal COVID-19 relief funds by 2026 or risk sending the money back to Washington, D.C.
With rising construction costs and delayed projects, city staff is proposing a reshuffling of dollars to meet deadlines and follow through on prior commitments. This includes reallocating money from the American Rescue Plan Act and general funds to projects that the staff is confident can be completed in the next two years.
“This is a two-pronged strategy,” City Manager David Cooke told council members at a May 7 work session. “Let’s make sure we spend ARPA, and let’s see what we can do to hit some of those capital project needs.”
ARPA dollars must be allocated by 2024 and spent by 2026.
About $85 million of federal and local money will be moved around, mostly to tackle transportation projects, while city staff continues to find dollars to close a $100 million funding gap for projects further down the road.
About $38.4 million of federal APRA money remains unspent. A portion of the remaining funds is currently committed to the Evans and Rosedale project, which has faced several delays, and the Texas A&M Innovation Hub, which broke ground last summer.
City staff is proposing those two projects be moved over to the general fund balance because the money allocated is not expected to be spent by 2026.
“There is no timetable in when (general fund) money has to be spent, so it’ll be at the pace we need to go to do Evans and Rosedale the right way,” Cooke said.
The ARPA dollars will instead fund qualified capital projects.
Federal ARPA funds must be used on projects created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative economic impacts, and for government services that saw a revenue dip as a result of the pandemic. The funds can also be used for water, sewer and broadband infrastructure improvements.
A majority of the newly funded projects are transportation and road projects in north Fort Worth. This includes improving pedestrian safety along Long Avenue, as well as intersection improvements at CFA Intermodal Parkway, North Beach Street, Basswood Boulevard, Wichita Street and Western Center Boulevard.
Work on the Meadowbrook Golf Course Maintenance Building is also on the list.
Several council members representing south Fort Worth raised concerns regarding the selection of the capital projects and their heavy focus on the north side.
Council member Chris Nettles, who represents southeast Fort Worth, which includes the Evans and Rosedale project, questioned why staff was picking and choosing projects on which to spend the federal funds rather than giving the council a complete list and letting them decide what is of interest based on constituents’ needs.
Nettles said this concern was voiced to staff previously, during the budgeting process.
“I understand moving the money. I get that part. But when you give us a list that doesn’t represent where we moved money from, it just smells a little fishy,” Nettles said.
Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens also echoed the need for more geographical diversity in the selected transportation projects.
“This moving around, it’s too north-centered,” Bivens said. “We also need to have some type of language that promises the public, ‘We know we’re moving this money around but we’re going to commit to doing what we told you,’ and I’m not hearing that.”
Council member Carlos Flores, who has two projects that will benefit from ARPA dollars, said work has begun, but the final funding is necessary for completion. The scope of the two projects, Long Avenue and Basswood Boulevard, have also increased to address drainage improvements.
“That was already funded, but now, supply chain issues, manufacturing slowdowns are coming into play,” Flores said. “It just needed more money to complete because as it stands right now, they can’t finish it.”
Council member Alan Blaylock, who also has projects in his district, said these are committed projects that are no longer funded to full completion because of rising costs and supply chain issues.
“I really don’t want to see us go back on prior commitments,” he said.
An additional $28 million from prior transportation bonds will be dedicated to work on Cromwell Marine Creek Road and Golden Triangle Boulevard.
Concerns were also raised by council member Elizabeth Beck about funding from the sale of the downtown library that was previously allocated to finding a new site now being used to pay for capital projects.
Beck told Cooke she worries that using funds originally dedicated to a new downtown library to pay for other projects will make it harder to find a location when the time comes.
With rising land costs, that task has become harder, she said.
“This council made a decision based on some information I won’t even say it wasn’t good information, but just on some assumptions that we would be able to find a building rather quickly and operate a downtown library again, and we can’t,” Beck said.
The city has $15.9 million left from the sale of the downtown library and plans to use $3.4 million from that sale for the far northwest library.
Cooke said $12.5 million from the library sale will be left to use on other library needs but did not say whether that money will be specifically dedicated to a downtown library.
“That could be a policy choice. We haven’t dedicated it to specific use yet. So the balance would be undirected,” Cooke said.
There are projects that continue to have funding gaps estimated at more than $100 million. Some of these projects are bond projects.
Another update will be given to the council at the May 21 meeting.
The city received $173 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars in 2021 and 2022 and spent a large portion of it within the first six months. The funds paid for large projects such as the Convention Center expansion, new City Hall and the realignment of Commerce Street. Money was also allocated to housing and the city’s response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sandra Sadek is a Report for America corps member, covering growth for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at sandra.sadek@fortworthreport.org or @ssadek19.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.