By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council heard from the ARPA Task Force on Tuesday and wants to table any final decisions on assisting with the childcare situation with that money until after the study that has been commissioned on the subject comes back later this year. However, City Manager Jeff Cantrell reminded the council that they may need to use some of the ARPA money for other things given the many big ticket items they have taken on lately.
"As you guys know, we have a ton of infrastructure that is non-budgeted," Cantrell said. "It's going to eat at our budget in a pretty significant way. We've got The Atrium, we've got certainly Woodie Seat in some form or fashion. We're going to have those major projects staring at us and that is going to impact our ability to have bond coverage for other projects in the future. We'll certainly revisit that and we appreciate the work of the committee."
The general thought is that any recommendations of the task force and long term projects would split the allocation 50-50.
"I think, at times, that's probably not a popular suggestion, because it's not enough," Cantrell said. "At other times, it's not popular because it's too much. Under that scenario, I would engage with Hutchinson Community Foundation to make sure that it's a feasible way to allocate those funds and to have those funds managed out to these outside organizations. We already do that. That's a practice that's already been done for many years here. I believe that it would conform to the auditing protocols that follow the federal act."
The study on child care needs is likely to be back in October of 2022. The money doesn't have to be spent until 2024.