Editor’s note: This is the fifth 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.

 

Surry County put half of its American Rescue Plan Act money toward matching another federal grant that funded the replacement of a well serving its school system.

Congress passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 pandemic relief package in 2021. Local governments, including Surry and its three towns, 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, has compiled an overview of how Surry County and its school system spent their ARPA allocations and what remains available to date.

 

Surry County

Allocated: $1.2 million

Unspent: ?

The late U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va., traveled to Surry County in 2022 to present local officials with a ceremonial $3.2 million check for water and sewer upgrades, including a new well to serve the complex at the corner of New Design and Hollybush roads where Surry Elementary, L.P. Jackson Middle School and Surry County High School are located. McEachin, whose 4th Congressional District includes Surry, died weeks after winning reelection that year and was succeeded by U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., in 2023.

Surry County’s 2022-23 budget included an ARPA spending plan that earmarked $640,000 as its 20% share of the nearly $4 million well replacement expense. The groundwater withdrawal permit the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued to Surry County Public Schools in 2017 required the abandonment of either the well serving Surry County High or the one serving Surry Elementary by Dec. 1, 2023, due to the old wells being gravel-packed, which can result in groundwater traveling between aquifers. The $3.2 million grant to Surry was included in a $43.4 billion federal House Appropriations Committee bill that year.

According to the 2022-23 ARPA spending plan, an additional $200,000 was earmarked for “indoor plumbing and derelict structure programming.”

Another $50,000 went to Surry’s Economic Development Authority to administer what county officials termed a “business recovery and reinvention” grant program.

The grant funded one-time payments of up to $5,000 to small businesses to assist with the cost of reinventing themselves to operate in a pandemic and post-pandemic market.

Businesses had from June 1-22 of that year to apply. The EDA’s criteria limited funds to businesses operational prior to March 1, 2022 with 25 or fewer employees. The EDA prohibited funds from going toward restarting a business that had closed during the early days of the pandemic and had yet to reopen. The EDA also vetted applicants based on their proposed use of the funds, which included payroll, rent, utilities, mortgage payments and supplies as qualifying expenses.

Another $19,377 was, as of the 2022-23 fiscal year, earmarked for bonuses for Surry County Sheriff’s Office deputies. Another $75,000 went toward government services and $6,540 went toward the purchase of COVID-19 test kits, leaving $256,481 unallocated as of that year.

Surry County did not respond to the Times’ multiple inquiries about what, if any, money remains unspent.

 

Surry County Public Schools

Allocated: $1.5 million

Unspent: $0

Surry County’s school system, like Isle of Wight’s, has an earlier deadline than local governments to spend its share of ARPA, which included a third round of Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding.

ESSER began in 2020 with the passage of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. Of the $122 billion in ESSER III funds allotted to states to help them reopen their schools, SCPS received $1.5 million.

The deadline to use ESSER I and II funds allotted under CARES lapsed in 2022 and 2023, respectively. School divisions have until Sept. 30 of this year to spend any remaining ESSER III funds.

SCPS put forward a spending plan for its ESSER III funds in December 2022, which earmarked $1.1 million for improving ventilation in all three schools and on buses, purchasing additional school buses and adding personnel to support nurses. The money also funded $1,400 bonuses for employees and outdoor learning spaces at its three schools.

ARPA specifically required school divisions to use 20% of their ESSER III funds to address the impact of lost instruction time from the months students spent quarantining at home and attending virtual classes. Surry put $396,847 of its ESSER III funds to provide after-school enrichment and tutoring for 2021 through 2024.

At a March meeting of Surry’s School Board, Finance Director Melissa Harvey reported $370,000 had been earmarked for the purchase of three school buses. As of that month, now-retired Superintendent Serbrenia Sims proposed using a then-remaining $530,000 in unspent ESSER funds to continue the annual bonus payments SCPS began in 2021.

Surry County Public Schools’ director of assessment, career readiness and instructional technology, Airon Grim, said the entirety of the division’s ESSER III funds had been spent as of Aug. 19.