During the Community and Economic Development portion of the budget hearing, councilors asked about $600,000 listed as "open" in the ARPA/COVID response section of the budget. County staff provided a breakdown of ARPA-related projects that still have funds to be drawn down: mobile health vans, lead-based paint projects, food-bank/food-hub support, and whole-home repair programs contracted through state allocations.

Staff told the council that the whole-home repair money was routed through the state and carries the same ARPA restrictions, and that some projects remain contracted but incomplete, which is why drawdowns are pending.

On the returned funds, staff said the county returned $1,600,000 of unspent ARPA funds to the state at the state’s request because the state had been pressed by the federal government to remit unspent dollars. "We had to return that back per the state," staff said.

Councilors also asked about a new blight remediation line, which staff said resulted from a budget amendment that reallocated funds from lead remediation to a larger-scale blight project; no final project had been selected at the hearing. Mobile health van projects were confirmed as drawn to Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke’s through community-health partners.

Staff noted that pass-through RACP/"rack p" money was included as carry-forward lines supporting rehabilitation of historic properties in the Colonial Industrial Quarter; staff described that money as a state pass-through used by Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites for property rehab.

Sources: county staff statements at the Northampton County Council budget hearing (transcript).