St. Louis to allocate nearly $500M in ARPA funds as deadline approaches

ST. LOUIS – A deadline to spend nearly half a billion dollars is quickly approaching.

The City of St. Louis is finalizing plans on the remaining funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. Some officials say you can already see some ARPA funds at work.

"We were able to get these community mobile vans so that we can take healthcare to the people. We have at least 10 events that come out of our department's plan each month on average. So far it has reached over 3,000 citizens," Director of Health Dr. Matifadza Davis said.

The directors of various departments broke down spending $498 million spread out across 364 projects.

The Treasury deadline on Dec. 31 is quickly approaching.

"It takes a long time to spend half a billion dollars in the City of St. Louis," Conner Kerrigan with Mayor Tishaura Jones' Office said.

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A portion of the Tuesday meeting was to also lay out $8.5 million from ARPA that the city is looking to reallocate.

"(We discussed) what projects weren't going to make the deadline, what projects had money that wasn't going to hit the obligation deadline that we could use, and where our priorities were," Kerrigan said.

Those funds will now go toward the 911 dispatch center that recently broke ground, according to Kerrigan.

"What we also wanted to do was to give the board, especially the HUD committee, which oversees the ARPA process, an update on all of the successes that we're already seeing from ARPA. You're looking at one right behind me. This fire truck right behind me is ARPA-funded," Kerrigan added.