The Ceres City Council voted last week on where to spend the remaining $624,424 of federal ARPA funds, which must be obligated prior to Dec. 31.

ARPA stands for American Rescue Plan Act approved by Congress in March 2021 to help local governments recover from impacts of everything being shut down by COVID.

Ceres has received a total of $11,651,510 from the ARPA legislation. The first installment of $5.8 million was received in July 2021 and the second installment of $5.8 million in July of 2022. Since then most of the money has been spent on various projects, from parks to police equipment and bonus pay for employees who worked through the pandemic. In June the council approved the use of $1.1 million in ARPA funds to help partially fill its 2024-25 fiscal year budget gap.

There are stipulations that the funds must be committed by Dec. 31 and spent by Dec. 31, 2026. As of Oct. 28, the city has spent a total of $8.1 million of ARPA funds and $2.9 million has been obligated for projects still in progress.

Finance Director Shannon Esenwein outlined that city staff recommended the council commit the funds for a variety of expenses:

• $250,000 for the city’s street tree pruning program;

• $50,069 for the emergency removal of street trees that fall in the winter;

• $10,000 on police dispatch monitors;

• $200,000 on a utility billing ADA accessible counter and cubicles;

• $57,225 for completion of Tyler software implementation in the Finance and Human Resources Department;

• $20,000 for defibrillators;

• $2,000 for wall-mounted first aid kits;

• $15,180 for an Accela license (Accela provides cloud-based solutions to enhance government operations, boost efficiency, and improve citizen engagement.)

Councilman James Casey asked if citizens had been asked for input of expenditures and was curious about possible allocations for the rehabilitation of the water tower, adding “we haven’t talked about that since I’ve been on the council.”

City Manager Doug Dunford said given that the funds have to be committed with contracts signed by Dec. 31, there is not enough time to ask for input.

Dunford said the city had a years old cost estimate of $589,000 to rehab the water tower – and likely cost more today – but getting a new estimate and analysis of costs would take longer than the Dec. 31 deadline for ARPA funds to be committed.

The city’s estimate for tower rehabilitation has been called into question by Ceres business owner and Ceres Chamber of Commerce President Brandy Meyer who is passionate about seeing the water tower brought back to its original luster. Meyer came to a December 2022 council meeting armed with a quote of $82,000 to repair and paint the lid and tank of the tower but not its legs. She estimates that the entire job could cost between $160,000 and $180,000.

In January of this year Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra asked for the tower to be placed on the agenda to gauge the council’s interest in assigning city staff to put together a study with costs and determine funding sources. Councilmembers gave a nod to the idea of assigning staff to determine if restoration is feasible. To date, the item has not been brought before the council.

Councilmembers Vierra and Bret Silveira joined Mayor Javier Lopez in voting for the expenditures while Casey voted “no.”