Floyd County Courthouse (Alex Driggars/Floyd County Record)
FLOYDADA – The very definitions of the word ‘acronym’ is when a word is formed from initials of a phrase or title. For months, multiple governmental and municipal agencies have used the acronym ‘ARPA’ to talk about funds, but what does it mean?
ARPA’s official title is the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 Trillion stimulus package passed in March of 2021. That money has been earmarked for infrastructure projects across the nation, and Floyd County is no exception.
Based on population, Floyd County has been tabbed to receive just over $1.1 Million of that money. So what will the county do with it? They are going to share it with the cities of Lockney and Floydada, as long as both get their projects done in time.
On Monday Commissioners set requirements for the cities to submit their projects. They asked both to outline how they would use the money and agree to have their projects completed by the end of June of 2026, six months before ARPA funds expire.
Using a tabulation of $130 per resident, Floyd County Commissioners previously announced they would award Floydada with $330,000 and Lockney with $240,000.
Both cities have also separately received ARPA funding based upon population, with Floydada being granted roughly $660,000 while Lockney received $404,000.
Monday morning both submitted previously-reported requests for water restoration projects, with Floydada requesting funds for water storage tanks to replace aging systems the city currently uses. Lockney will use half of their money for TCEQ emergency preparedness plan that requires cities have backup generators in case of a power outage. The other half will be put toward the replacement of water meters in the city.
County Commissioners approved the plans and agreed to pay both cities following completion of the projects.
Last month the county also earmarked some of their funds for new infrared cameras for the sheriff’s office patrol units, leaving $564,000 in funds left for future designation. Judge Marty Lucke told commissioners to be thinking about what they would wish to spend the money on, and will meet at a different time to budget and plan fund use.
