The Economic Development ARPA subgroup held their first meeting via Zoom at 9:00 am on October 14th. Vice Mayor Steve Kay, CM Preston Worley, and CM Susan Lamb are tasked with recommending the economic development proposals that most closely align with the ARPA funding criteria.
Some of their recurring concerns as they discussed the proposals were if funds would be for a one-time project or ongoing, if the proposal could be better funded through budget stabilization or bonding, and if the project met most of the ARPA funding criteria. After two hours and still more proposals to be discussed, they decided to meet for another hour on Friday at 1pm.
Here's what they decided in today's meeting:
- VisitLex Hospitality Industry Recovery ($1M + $500k for trade show booth): recommended
- Town Branch Park (about $10M): need more information
- General Support to the Tourism Industry (unspecified amount): not recommended; needs addressed with the VisitLex proposal
- Ag and Ag Tourism (unspecified amount): group would like to see consideration for combining the Davis Commons, Workforce Development LFUCG Center for Economic Development, and the Farmer's Market permanent structure.
- Ag Tech and Economic Development proposal (unspecific amount): recommended
- Cultivating Community proposal (unspecified amount): kept on the list but not recommended; too similar to Seedleaf
- Livestock Exhibition Facility at Masterson Station (unspecified amount): not recommended
- PDR Program funding from ARPA instead of Bonds: not recommended; program is already adequately funded and bonding rates are too low right now to not take advantage of them
- BCTC Campus Support, Services and Workforce Training to West End Neighborhoods: need more information; see value but have concerns about funding infrastructure improvements instead of programs for an organization that already has its own funding stream. May consider funding program-specific requests.
- Summer Youth Employment Program: recommend, but consider fund balance as a funding option instead of ARPA
- Kentucky Remote: not recommended
- Expand CommerceLex's Minority Business Accelerator: recommended; subgroup asked for amount requested
- COVID-19 Bilingual Educational Efforts: requested more information; may be a candidate for fund balance
- DV8 Kitchen: Subgroup supports, but does not want to allocate funding to individual organizations at this stage. Recommended as a recipient within a greater second chance workforce development funding category.
- Workforce: Targeted Funding with Key Partners: not recommended; combine with other projects
- Distillery District Revitalization ($57M): need more information from proposal authors; won't be funding the entire project, but interested in smaller aspects that could bring it along more quickly
- Creation of Office of Cooperative Employment: not recommended; could fold this into existing offices and programs