Modesto has plan for $22.9 million in pandemic aid. How will the city spend the money?
The City Council has approved a spending plan for Modesto’s second and final payment of $22.9 million in federal pandemic relief funding.
The city is setting aside $8.1 million in reserve in the event of a resurgence of COVID-19 and to deal with the economic uncertainty the nation now faces.
Of the remainder, $3 million is being set aside to extend the life of pilot programs the city has recently started or is starting. Those programs include having rangers patrol problem parks and the Community Health and Assistance Team, in which outreach workers work with homeless people and others in crisis who don’t need the services of a police officer.
Modesto also is using $4.5 million from its second relief payment to help balance the general fund in its current operating budget. The fund makes up about a third of the $508 million operating budget, and about 80% of the general fund is spent on public safety.
The city also plans to spend $2 million for park improvements and maintenance of city trees, $1 million on 911 dispatch services and $1.8 million on the city’s Camp2Home program, which helps homeless people find employment and housing.
The city is working with the Downtown Streets Team on this effort. The nonprofit streets team provides homeless people with volunteer work and services.
Expanding bulky item pickup
The city also is setting aside $180,000 for the creation of a bulky item pickup program for people who live in apartments and other multifamily housing.
Modesto now offers bulky item pickup for residents of single-family homes only. Residents can put out old furniture, appliances and similar items along their curbs twice a year and a city trash hauler will pick them up. The cost of the service is included in residents’ monthly garbage bills.
More information can be found at www.modestogov.com/373/Bulky-Item-Pick-Up. City officials have said they hope to start a program for residents of multifamily housing in 2023.
Modesto allocated its first round of nearly $22.9 million on such efforts as providing $500,000 each to the Modesto Children’s Museum, the Graffiti USA Museum, which celebrates the city’s car culture, and to The Awesome Spot, an inclusive playground at Beyer Community Park.
Beautification and blight reduction
It also allocated $700,000 toward downtown beautification, $750,000 toward reducing blight across the city, $708,500 toward a gift card program to help local businesses, and $1 million each toward the development of downtown housing and a business expansion and retention program.
The City Council voted 6-0 last week to approve the spending plan for Modesto’s second and final payment in federal pandemic relief funding.
Mayor Sue Zwahlen thanked city staff and council members and said that the city’s spending plan has reflected the needs of the community.
The two nearly $22.9 million payments are from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion relief effort that President Joe Biden signed into law in March 2021.
The act provided a range of help across the economy, including direct stimulus payments to families, help for tenants behind in their rent, unemployment assistance and payments to states and local governments to help them deal with the pandemic’s impact.
