In 2021 the City of Charlotte was informed that it would be awarded $955,256.46 in Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. In October 2021, the City Council directed the City Manager to utilize not more than $60,000 for a one-time payment to eligible workers under the Essential Worker Premium Pay provision. In November 2021, the city paid out $57,283.13 to eligible essential workers who continued to serve the city during the height of the pandemic closures, including payments to employees in public works, police, and fire departments, including the volunteer firefighters. In April, 2022 the City Council allocated not more than $21,000 to be utilized to purchase a LUCAS device which will assist the fire department by providing life-saving CPR support. This leaves approximately $877,000 available for funding other projects.
City Council sought public input to prepare a plan for allocating the remaining funds. Any funding allocation must meet the rules set out by the US Treasury. Within those parameters, city administration has prepared some project ideas for feedback from the public to help City Council set funding priorities.
A copy of the survey results can be found by clicking here. The survey was provided in the County Journal on April 30th and available online. A City Council workshop meeting was held on Thursday, June 9th to receive comments in-person, review survey results, and engage in further discussion.
Project Ideas – Below are the project descriptions for the various project ideas put forth by Administration. Please note, for eligible projects Administration has been seeking out grant funding opportunities as an alternative funding option