The days are getting shorter, the mornings colder, and leaves are beginning to wage their annual war against tidy lawns. It won’t be long until Thanksgiving followed shortly by Christmas.

But the end of the year has extra significance this year as it marks a milestone in billions of federal spending born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local, state and federal agencies face a deadline of December 31, 2024, to encumber funds associated with the American Rescue Plan Act or see the money returned to federal coffers.

Hundreds of millions of ARPA dollars have been poured into Mississippi’s infrastructure since passage of the law in 2021. The state Legislature used some of the state ARPA money to set up dollar-for-dollar matching grants for cities and counties, and two-for-one grants for smaller systems.

Lauderdale County received about $14 million in ARPA money which has gone to a variety of projects. Meridian, receiving around $8.5 million, received a matching state grant to pour more than $17 million into its sewer system.

Marion, which is considered a rural water association and eligible for the two-for-one match, turned its $300,000 into $900,000 to inspect and repair sewer infrastructure as well.

State programs and agencies have also invested ARPA money in Meridian and Lauderdale County funding bridge repairs under the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair fund, performed improvement projects on state highways in Meridian, paying for paving work and more.

With the deadline to encumber funds rapidly approaching, the bountiful supply of infrastructure funding is going to dry up, and local and state leaders will have to decide where we go from here.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation, funded mainly through an 18.4-cent gas tax, is still underfunded and unable to cover the costs of just maintaining the roads and bridges it has now, and aging infrastructure — including roads, bridges, freshwater and sewer networks — will continue to challenge elected officials in all 82 counties.

How best to move forward will undoubtedly be a topic broached when the state Legislature meets for its annual session in January, and lawmakers will likely have to make some tough decisions as they balance the state’s infrastructure needs with the burden placed on taxpayers.

For now though, it looks like the heyday of infrastructure investment is nearing its end.