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WARREN -- Trumbull County officials have found more than $2 million, and expect to find more, of the American Rescue Plan Act money that might have been allocated, but not spent.
Commissioners might be able to use the money to fulfill requests made by various townships and nonprofits still waiting to learn if they will receive a portion of the nearly $39 million in federal relief funds.
Attorney James Misocky, special projects administrator, last week told commissioners during a workshop meeting there was approximately $459,000 of ARPA money in the county's general fund still available to distribute; and another $6 million under its revenue loss category.
Those estimates were well below the $15 million that commissioners believed remained from the ARPA funds.
Since that meeting, county Auditor Martha Yoder, Misocky and commissioners board President Denny Malloy have spent time reviewing all requests made for the federal funds, allocations approved by the county and actual money spent to find out how much money they actually have to work with going forward.
In the meantime, the commissioners put a pause on awarding any new money until they have a better handle on the remaining funds.
Malloy described finding approximately $2 million of allocated, but not spent, money within hours of reviewing some of the county's ARPA fund documentation.
On Tuesday, during the commissioners' weekly workshop, Yoder told the commissioners there likely is another $2 million available.
Currently, Malloy estimates they have $6.4 million.
Yoder expects to turn in a report Aug. 8 that provides what she described as the "hard money" that has been spent and "soft money" that might have been promised and / or allocated, but not spent on project requests.
Once there's a complete audit of the awards given in the last two years, Yoder expects to be able to provide a range of what money is still available.
"I'm excited with the directions we are going," Malloy said. "We are excited to get hard number (amounts) rather that soft numbers."
Malloy said the county made commitments to many people and organizations and he plans, with the approval of his other two board members, to fulfill those.
"Townships will receive a large chunk of the money that is left," Malloy said. "Also, we will provide funding to some of the nonprofits seeking funds."
"We are divvying up the money in a responsible way," he continued. "We will follow up on the commitments that Commissioner (Niki) Frenchko and I made at previous meetings that we will show love to the townships."
"I'm going to lobby hard to make sure that everyone gets a piece of the pie," he said. "We are going to make sure there is no waste."
"Once we know those numbers, we will be able to pick out the best projects," Malloy said. "We need between $4 million and $5 million to make sure every township is treated equally. That's if every township receives between $200,000 and $250,000."
"The townships are going to be a high priority," he said.
Malloy said there probably will be money left over and he would like to use some of the funds for broadband services.
Frenchko previously said she asked the other commisioners multiple times about doing a spreadsheet before final decisions were made.
"I wanted the board as a whole to look at applications, request amount, status, approval, encumbered amount, paid amounts, lead entity, project type, project location (benefited area), suspected ARPA category contact," she said. "They refused."
She did not attend Tuesday's commissioner's workshop when this was discussed. She hosts separate meetings with employees and department heads to discuss agenda items.
ARP discussions were not on this week's agenda.
Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said the notion that the money was mishandled or misspent wasn't ever the case, as has been alluded to on social media sites.
"Every single dollar spent has been accounted for and legal opinions have been given before each and every check is cut," he said. "At the end of the day, we will be able to assist townships and nonprofits with millions of dollars, our general fund revenue is up, and we've held the line on any sales tax increases."