Editor’s note: This is the sixth and last in a series of articles on how area localities have spent their allotted American Rescue Plan Act funds, which must be allocated by Dec. 31 of this year and spent by the end of 2026.

A new water tower and the renovation of a historic home into a community center are among the uses Surry County’s three towns chose for their allotment of American Rescue Plan Act money.

Congress passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 pandemic relief package in 2021. Local governments each received a share which must be obligated by Dec. 31 of this year and spent by the end of 2026.

The Smithfield Times, based on public records and interviews with town officials, has compiled an overview of how Surry’s three towns spent their ARPA allocations and what remains available to date.

 

Claremont

Allocated: $176,546 (2021)

Unspent: $65,585

 

Claremont, a town of just over 300 residents fronting the James River and the Surry-Prince George county border, received $176,546 in discretionary ARPA money, of which $65,585 was unspent as of Aug. 7, according to Town Councilwoman Louise Hansch.

The town received a separate $3.2 million ARPA grant through the Virginia Department of Health in 2021 for a waterworks upgrade that broke ground in June. According to bid documents by Waco Inc., the contractor Claremont’s Town Council chose for the job, the work will include the construction of a new 30,000 gallon water tower, 240-square-foot pump station and more than 11,000 linear feet of water mains along Slope Point and River roads.

A roughly 22,000-gallon rusted tank on Mancha Avenue that once held the town’s drinking water hasn’t been used since 1983, according to VDH records. In 2012, the VDH warned town officials that Claremont’s waterworks had more than 300 users tied into a system that, even with the old tower, would have capacity only for 193 residential connections.

Hansch said the town put $19,764 toward other water and sewer projects and allocated the $156,781 remainder for the water tower project. The $65,585 that remained as of Aug. 7 is being disbursed monthly and Hansch expects it will be spent by this fall.

 

Dendron

Allocated: $128,133 (2021)

Unspent: $128,133

 

Dendron, a town of roughly 250 residents built as a company town by the Surry Lumber Co. near the Surry-Sussex county border, received just over $128,000 in ARPA funds in 2021, which it had yet to spend as of Aug. 26.

A June 9, 2021, memorandum from then-state secretary of finance Aubrey Layne Jr. to the governments of cities and towns with less than 50,000 residents, dubbed “non-entitlement units” of government, or NEUs, estimated Dendron would receive $128,133 that year in ARPA funds.

“Towns have broad flexibility to spend these funds to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the memo stated.

Wallace Faison Jr., Dendron’s mayor, said the town is aware of the looming deadline to allocate its ARPA funds and is planning to put its share toward renovating the historic Mussel Fork plantation house into a community center.

The Smithfield Times, in 2007, reported the oldest portion of the house is believed to date to 1731, and at that time was located on Mussel Fork Farm, land that by 2008 was slated as the site of a controversial coal-fired power plant Old Dominion Electric Cooperative proposed to build. Plans for the plant were later scrapped.

Its owners over the centuries included David Steele, the original owner of the Surry Railroad and Lumber Co. The Times reported in 2008 that then-owners Tom Evelyn and George Judkins gifted the house to the town and had it moved closer to Route 31 within the town’s borders.

Faison said he’s working on getting quotes for the renovations.

“I would like to see a nice community center, an addition added onto the side of that house,” Faison said. “I wanted to do something where everybody in town benefits.”

 

Surry

Allocated: $113,089 (2021)

Unspent: ?

 

Surry, a centrally-located town of just over 200 residents that’s served as the seat of the county government since 1797, received $113,089 as its first tranche of ARPA funds, according to the 2021 state memorandum. Town officials did not respond by press deadline on Tuesday as to what if any amount remained unspent.

Separately from each town’s ARPA allocation, and the $1.2 million allocated to Surry County, the Surry County 4-H program received $75,000 from the ARPA-funded Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Program.

Surry 4-H was one of five to charitable organizations to receive a portion of the state’s $11 million budgeted for the Food Assistance Program, of which $283,133 had been spent and $6.5 million had been unspent but allocated as of June 30, 2023, according to a state report.

“The performance period of this agreement was March 23, 2023 to December 30, 2023 with administrative costs not to exceed 10% of the total award,” said Jason Powell, deputy secretary of finance to the office of Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “These funds were a separate grant to Surry 4H and in addition to any awards to the County.”