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The American Rescue Plan provided over $9 million dollars of funding to Winona County. Now the question for both city and county leadership that remains how it will be spent.
Winona County Board chair Chris Meyer has put a lot of thought put into those decisions.
The county board had set a framework for the funds during its board meeting on Oct. 26. Under this framework, the board approved use of $2.6 million “to extend broadband to underserved and unserved areas in rural Winona County.”
Meyer said that broadband was a priority.
“My understanding from the conversation was that once achieved we would only have 900 households across the count that don’t have service,” Meyer stated.
One of the things that the board is taking into account is a survey done by Engage Winona. In the survey, participants were asked a series of questions about what they feel Winona County needs to focus on funding.
Meyer recognized that some of the responses that the survey received cannot be funded through this federal aid, as it comes with strict guidelines on what it can — and, perhaps more importantly, cannot — be used for.
“The ARPA funding had pretty specific rules that came with it. It is not possible to use it to just reduce the tax levy, that just isn’t allowed. There is also the issue of different levels of government,” Meyer said. “It’s not out of the question, just that we don’t have jurisdiction over those areas.”
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