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WARREN -- Mayor Doug Franklin is asking city council to prepare and pass legislation to disburse American Rescue Plan funds to two organizations that will provide the funds as loans and grants to nonprofit and for-profit groups affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Franklin met with members of city council at a special meeting Wednesday on what he would like council to do and had representatives of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and Valley Economic Development Partners explain how they would use the ARP funds.
"This is an important piece of our ARP spending budget. We have received nearly $38 million in proposals for the $28 million we have received from the federal government. We could not fund all those proposals. We have been looking at ways to be creative in spending the rest of those funds," he said.
Franklin will ask council at its June 14 meeting to prepare legislation to provide $1.5 million of the ARP funds to Valley Economic Development Partners and $500,000 to the Community Foundation.
"We need to appropriate this money and get it into their coffers so we can start the program. These two organizations were high on our list to run these programs," Franklin said.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN
Teresa Miller, executive director of Valley Economic Development Partners, said it would use the ARP funds for a $1.5 million revolving loan program to help small for-profit businesses in Warren that will create jobs for Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Miller said for 2023 so far, the agency has provided 53 loans totaling $5.2 million, with 13 loans totaling $1.5 million in Trumbull County and six loans totaling $782,000 in the city of Warren. Miller said the businesses needing loans can use them for making improvements to their buildings.
First Ward Councilman Todd Johnson said any person who applies for a loan must show that COVID-19 had a negative impact on their business, according to federal guidelines.
Miller said loans will be given consideration to underserved areas of the city and underserved populations.
Shari Harrell, president of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, said ARP dollars would be used to help nonprofit organizations in the city of Warren.
She said the Community Foundation, which is based in both Warren and Youngstown, would administer the grant program. She said the foundation administers more than 160 funds for different purposes with different guidelines.
The goal will be to spend the entire $500,000 as quickly as possible to have it invested and into the community to help provide direct service to people who were directly affected by COVID-19.
Casey Krell, director of supporting organizations and donor services for the Community Foundation, said people applying for the grants would explain how COVID-19 impacted their organization in the Warren community and the economic disruption that was created.
She said organizations that directly impact the residents will be priortized and as will program and project requests over capital needs.
Krell said she expects it to be a very competitive grant request program.
"There will be more requests than we can fund," Harrell said.
Harrell said organizations such as ACTION and the Oakhill Collaborative, while not located in Warren, do provide services to the city and could apply as well.