Under federal guidelines, the money had to be allocated by the end of 2024, or be returned to the federal government. Recipients — state and local governments — have until 2026 to spend the funds.
The Morning Call asked both counties if they achieved that goal, and how.
Both Lehigh and Northampton supported their county-operated nursing homes using ARPA funds, as well as funded other public health initiatives like Lehigh’s efforts to expand and publicize the 988 hotline that supports those in mental health crises and Northampton’s lead-based paint remediation.
Supporting grants for small businesses ranked high on the priority list for both counties, with Lehigh spending $9.8 million of its $71.6 million allocation, and Northampton spending $15.4 million, out of $61.2 million.
Local governments who received ARPA funds were instructed to focus on priorities such as replacing lost revenue for public services, addressing public health needs, paying essential workers, infrastructure (specifically water, sewer and broadband), natural disaster emergency relief, surface transportation projects and community development.
Lehigh County reduced the federal government’s list of ARPA-supported spending categories to three key priorities: improving public health, addressing negative economic impacts and replacing lost revenue to support government services, said Rick Molchany , the county’s director of general services.
Stephen J. Barron Jr., Northampton County’s fiscal affairs director, said he believed the federal ARPA guidelines were broad enough to “fit the needs of communities.” He also said county Executive Lamont G. McClure and the administration brought in stakeholders, such as County Council and the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, to help dole out funds.
SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESSES AND NONPROFITS
In addition to the $9.8 million in ARPA funding that Lehigh County spent supporting small businesses, the county spent nearly $3 million supporting nonprofits, Molchany said. All that spending is now closed, Molchany said.
Hundreds of small businesses received money, Molchany said.
Besides $15.4 million from ARPA, Northampton County gave another $5 million from an earlier round of federal pandemic relief funding for small businesses.
“We looked at the needs in the community: small business and community organizations that propped up residents,” Barron said.
A task force that included Northampton County and chamber representatives reviewed business owners’ applications for $15,000 grants, which were handed out first come, first served, Barron said.
McClure’s intent was to help small businesses, arguing they were most directly affected by the pandemic, Barron said.
“The administration has always tried to be transparent,” Barron said. “[McClure] was clear: ‘Get this money out the door.’ The last thing you want to have happen during a disaster is you’re sitting on a ton of money and not getting it to the people who need it.”
Northampton County Controller Tara Zrinski said nearly $15.4 million funded 1,178 small businesses and the county spent $2.4 million to aid nonprofits.
SHORING UP NURSING HOME OPERATIONS
Keeping county-operated nursing homes solvent and attempting to maintain service levels was another high priority for both Lehigh and Northampton counties as the pandemic delivered a double hit of revenue losses and staffing shortages.
In Lehigh, Cedarbrook required $7 million to plug the hole in lost revenue.
A closed admission process during the pandemic resulted in fewer patients coming in, and many staff left, creating difficulties in meeting the required hours-per-patient standard of care to remain in compliance with federal Medicaid and Medicare guidelines, Molchany said.
“We’ve never recovered from that,” Molchany said. “This is a small drop in the bucket of the revenue that we lost.”
Lehigh County also allocated $22.9 million toward ongoing construction at Cedarbrook’s South Whitehall Township facility. Construction of a new wing began in 2022 and will be complete in early 2026, Molchany said. The expanded facility should allow for fewer patients in each room, which will help reduce the risk of infectious disease spread — a risk the pandemic highlighted, he added.
Northampton County spent about a quarter of its ARPA funds on Gracedale, the county nursing home, which received approximately $15 million.
Of that $15 million, the majority went toward a $10 million allocation to individual employees’ $2,500 annual bonuses and staff recruitment. Another $2 million went toward free day care at the nursing home for children of employees.
LEHIGH COUNTY: WHAT'S LEFT FROM ARPA?
To date, Lehigh County has spent approximately $44.8 million of the $71.6 million it received in ARPA funds, Molchany said. All the funds have already been earmarked ahead of the federal deadline, he added.
However, according to ARPA rules, earmarked funds still can be moved to other approved spending priorities over the next two years if those other priorities also meet federal guidelines.
Lehigh County put 56.7% of its ARPA funds toward public health, Molchany said. That nearly $40.7 million bucket included support for Cedarbrook and $4.15 million for mental health and crisis support, including suicide prevention efforts, a walk-up clinic for youth services and expanded mental health secure treatment for youth, Molchany said.
Building awareness of the county’s 988 rollout has been a priority, as Lehigh County seeks to draw awareness of the hotline designed to alleviate pressure on 911 and provide specialized support for those in a mental health crisis.
“Currently, so many parts of the mental health system are overwhelmed,” Michael Ramsey , the clinical director at Valley Youth House, said in an email. “To have a phone/text system specifically designed to support people experiencing a crisis situation adds tremendous support.”
Having a resource where people are trained to manage these situations allows for county residents to receive high-quality responses to their needs and can help prevent tragic situations, Ramsey said. “Secondly, having this dedicated system probably offers relief to the 911 system where many of those calls would end up.”
Those seeking to expand the use of the 988 hotline highlight the ability to call or text. While Ramsey said he doesn’t have any concrete data on whether or not youth tend to use the text option over the phone system, he said, “Anecdotally, I think we all live in a world where we are less likely to have phone conversations and more likely to text. We don’t even order food by calling restaurants these days! Having a text option creates a pathway for someone to take initial steps to getting support in a crisis that may feel more comfortable to many people.”
In addition to supporting public health initiatives, Lehigh County deemed the renovation of Coca-Cola Parkto be a quality-of-life project that would improve the facility, increase safety for players and staff and increase guest attendance, Molchany said.
The minor league baseball stadium received $4.5 million in ARPA funds. The county owns the facility, which the Lehigh Valley IronPigs lease.
Affordable housing received a $1.1 million boost from Lehigh County’s ARPA funds, with three developers being approved for tax credits designed to boost developers who create equitable housing in Lehigh County. Molchany said “equity housing” is primarily, but not exclusively, low-income housing.
The next phase in feasibility planning for regional passenger rail received $250,000 from Lehigh County. Northampton has not yet allocated funds toward that effort and Lehigh has allocated but not spent those funds, so Molchany said that is one example of allocated funds that could potentially be moved to support another ARPA-approved priority.
“I don’t know if that will ever come to fruition based upon the information received in our first analysis of rail, which shows incredible capital investment, incredible subsidies being required for a very marginal benefit to get from Lehigh Valley to New York or Lehigh Valley to Philadelphia,” Molchany said.
Economic development plans supported with Lehigh County ARPA funds also include $1 million to Marcon Industries to support its hiring of residents who live in marginalized areas of Lehigh County, Molchany said. The most likely ZIP codes to be prioritized are in Allentown: 18101, 18102 and 18103.
Those ZIP codes are areas of economic concern and the county would like to support the hiring of more residents from underserved areas into “good-paying, union-level” jobs, Molchany said.
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY: WHAT'S LEFT FROM ARPA?
The county received nearly $61.2 million in ARPA funds and has earmarked nearly all of it, according to Barron. He said all money has been accounted for and does not need to be returned to the federal government.
“If we go beyond 2026, we don’t anticipate having any issues, because we have done what we needed to, reporting-wise,” Barron said.
The balance of the ARPA money not spent on Gracedale or small-business support went toward a host of other programs or agencies, specifically nonprofits, according to Barron.
Additionally, some $20.6 million in ARPA money has been allocated for broadband deployment, mobile health vehicles, lead paint remediation, emergency services and county records. The last item has McClure pursuing initiatives to digitize paper records.
The breakdown of additional ARPA spending includes more than $5 million toward emergency radio work; $1.6 million to cover election security issues; and $1.5 million for affordable housing, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
Barron said county officials were not left wishing there were other projects they could have spent the money on and that what money the county received went out efficiently.
Suggestions on how to disburse the money from McClure were put into motion. For example, the county established drive-thru COVID-screening clinics with St. Luke’s University and Lehigh Valley health networks before and after ARPA money arrived, Barron said.
Barron said no one’s job is specifically dependent upon the federal money, and the county is not expected to pass on costs to taxpayers as the years advance. For example, he said, the county is partnering with LVHN and St. Luke’s to continue deploying mobile health vans with the networks’ financial backing.
BY THE NUMBERS
Local governments had until the end of December 2024 to allocate funds from the American Rescue Plan Act — a federal COVID-19 relief program — and that money must be spent before the end of 2026.
Here’s how Lehigh and Northampton counties are doing with that spending:
- $71.6 million: ARPA funds received by Lehigh County
- $44.8 million: ARPA funds already spent by Lehigh County
- $61.2 million: ARPA funds received by Northampton County
- $57 million: ARPA funds already spent by Northampton County
- $29.9 million: ARPA money to Lehigh’s Cedarbrook (construction and revenue replacement)
- $15 million: ARPA money to Northampton’s Gracedale (mainly staff support)
