How Marathon County is spending millions in ARPA dollars

The pandemic relief funding is your money — you should know where it is going

President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law on March 11, 2021. The act is a $1.9 trillion aid package to address economic shortfalls that occurred as the result of the pandemic and America’s response to it.

Municipalities, including towns, villages and cities, along with counties, are getting millions in pandemic relief.

In the last installment of this series, we looked at how Wausau so far has spent its ARPA dollars, and what projects it’s considering. In this part of the series, we will look at how the county has spent those dollars so far, and how much it plans to spend going forward.

Marathon County got $26.3 million in APRA funding thanks to the 2021 act. Some of that has been spent so far, but most of that is still available and being sought for projects in the county, ranging from environmental projects and park cleanup to a forensics science center and bridge repair.

What’s been spent so far?

So far Marathon County has allocated roughly $5.2 million, leaving an additional $21.1 million to fund projects, according to county documents. Most projects also will go through the county’s capital improvement project process, and so capital borrowing could help pay for those projects instead of ARPA dollars.

So far the county has allocated to:

• $3.9 million toward a major broadband expansion project

• $630,000 toward video/audio upgrades in the Marathon County Courthouse and jail

• $500,000 toward PTO balance liability reduction

• $60,000 toward the Uniquely Wisconsin tourism campaign (a marketing campaign in partnership with the state tourism department)

• $42,900 toward leasing space in the Community Partners Campus

Now on to what projects are being proposed.