Several City Projects will be funded and underway soon thanks to the $14.7 million received from Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez through the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund established by the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) last summer.
During a City Council meeting held last month, the projects were announced after City Councilmembers ranked the highest priority projects in the City to receive the funding disbursement.
The first highest-ranked project to receive funding is the City’s Aquatics Center. This project will receive $6.5 million from the ARPA funds and will go towards the refurbishment of the Aquatics Center. City Staff will seek project bids soon and construction will begin thereafter. There is no start date as of yet, and the Aquatics Center will remain closed until this project is completed.
Funding for PFAS Treatment Facilities were next on the priority list of projects. Approximately $4.3 million has been allocated to fund a PFAS Treatment System for the Pico Rivera Water Authority. While the total cost of the PFAS project is about $13.0 million, $4.3 million of the ARPA funds will be used to get the project started. In the meantime, City Staff will continue to look for other funding sources by way of grants to fund future water infrastructure projects, including PFAS treatment projects. The remaining balance of the funding, $4 million, will be used towards the maintenance, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and improvement on the City’s streets. City staff plan to use the $4 million over the next four years to help accelerate planned pavement improvement projects.
In addition to these projects, the City will be able to pay for six additional projects that include; a dog park, HVAC installation at the Pico Park and Rivera Park gyms, new roofing at Rivera Park and Smith Park, automatic license plate reader, workforce development/ apprenticeship program, and Senior Center patio ADA improvements. With a total cost of approximately $4.3 million, funding will be made available through a repayment from the City’s Water Fund to the City’s General Fund as a result of receiving ARPA funding.
“Thanks to Congresswoman Sánchez, we are now able to proceed with much needed projects in the City,” said City Manager Steve Carmona. “We’re all extremely excited to get these projects started and I’m sure our residents will be pleased with the progress we will be making the coming months.”
The American Rescue Plan was a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill to speed up the country’s recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of this relief package, the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund provided billions of dollars directly to municipalities to support urgent COVID-19 response efforts, replace lost revenue to strengthen support for vital public services and help retain jobs, stabilize households and businesses, and address systemic public health and economic challenges that have contributed to the impact of the pandemic.
