Doña Ana County Commissioners are currently reviewing the best way to allocate millions in American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The county, which was allotted over 42 million dollars, has identified four areas of focus—longstanding public health issues, negative economic impacts, premium pay for essential county workers and critical infrastructure investments.
Part of the proposed plan recommends funding for a new Office of Emergency Management facility. The current building is 5,000 square feet, which the county says has led to operational challenges. County Manager Fernando Macias says funding for the new 16,000 square foot building could come from both the American Rescue Plan Act and FEMA.
“The intent is to ultimately have a standalone building that is dedicated to the Office of Emergency Management, and that represents and contains space in order to do the full coordination involving all of the local governments in Doña Ana County,” Macias said. “We would be looking to FEMA, hopefully, to at least provide 50% of the funding related to the building.”
1.5 million is being proposed to support small businesses. Already, the county has used over 3 million dollars in additional funding to help local businesses through the pandemic, but Davin Lopez, from the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, says he sees how more funding could be needed to adequately address the hardship.
“We're seeing industry now coming back, sometimes even stronger, and new opportunities are out there,” Lopez said. “And in that respect, I could see where there's needed funding to help that momentum continue forward.”
The plan also seeks to qualify all county workers as essential while entitling them to premium pay—an amount of $4,000 to be distributed over the next year. It’s an endeavor estimated to cost over 3 million.
Commissioner Lynn Ellins says that while he is in favor of the increased pay, he does not believe all county workers should be able to qualify as essential.
“I don't see how we could classify all county employees as essential workers under the definition of what an essential worker is,” Ellins said. “I'm not opposed to the $4,000, but I do have a big problem with classifying everybody as essential.”
County Manager Fernando Macias emphasized the reclassification is within county rights under federal guidelines.
“We wouldn't be putting this forward unless the guidelines themselves from the federal government had basically already indicated that any employee can be deemed an essential employee,” Macias said. “So, if we adopted this strategy, we would not be having to justify that some employees are a different category than others.”
More than 10 million is being proposed for critical infrastructure investments, including the completion of a broadband feasibility study as well as a flood mitigation project. County Flood Commission Director John Gwynne spoke about why flood control investment is in the public’s best interest.
“The Braham Channel and Dragonfly Channel Project is a massive project that impacts probably the largest population area within the county,” Gwynne said. “It's the backbone to any flood control that happens on the East Mesa. All the water that's through any other project has to flow through this channel, so it becomes the main push for what has to be done.”
Above all, County Manager Fernando Macias stressed the need for expedient decision-making.
“The sooner we start, and the sooner we know what the priorities are that have been endorsed by the commission, the sooner we’re beginning on these projects,” Macias said.
The Doña Ana County Commission is currently scheduled to vote on American Rescue Plan Act funding recommendations at the June 22 meeting.
