Luzerne County Council is set to hold a special meeting Tuesday focused on federal American Rescue Plan awards to outside entities.
A council majority approved a plan earlier this week that will cap outside allocations by category, but council must still vote on the actual recipients and awards.
Council Vice Chairman John Lombardo said council could potentially vote Tuesday on 78 projects that are slated to receive all funding requested, although details of how voting would be structured are still under legal review.
In total, caps approved this week could allow 115 outside entities to collectively receive $56.27 million in American Rescue funding, according to a list prepared by Councilman Matthew Mitchell, who drafted the plan. The caps: municipalities/municipal authorities, $2 million; nonprofits, $500,000; and small businesses, $200,000.
As presented, the list calls for 78 entities to receive all requested funding.
The remaining 37 applicants not receiving the amount they sought would have to submit revised budgets demonstrating how they would scale back their projects or provide additional funding through other means to complete them as originally proposed. Those unable to adjust would be deemed ineligible and removed from consideration, freeing up those funds for other purposes, council members said.
It’s still unclear whether council will be approving the awards individually or as one group.
At this week’s meeting, council members discussed the likelihood that awards would be approved one-by-one, although some are exploring if bulk approval is possible.
Either way, council members would have to abstain on specific awards if they have a conflict of interest.
The proposed recipient list in Mitchell’s plan is posted as an attachment to council’s March 14 meeting agenda at luzernecounty.org.
Tuesday’s meeting starts at 5 p.m. at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions for remote attendance will be posted under council’s online meeting link at luzernecounty.org.