The City of Meridian is going all in on a matching grant for American Rescue Plan Act funds as the city council voted Tuesday to put the city’s entire $8.9 million ARPA allotment up for a match.

The matching grant program, which is being administered by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, provides cities and counties with a dollar-for-dollar match using $450 million allocated by the state legislature earlier this year.

Applications for the grant opened Sept. 1 and the city administration urged the council to move quickly in case the applications exceeded the allocated funds.

“It is the recommendation of the administration that whatever you decide to do, you do it quick,” Mayor Jimmie Smith said.

While the council had previously discussed using its ARPA funds to tackle some of the larger projects required under the city’s EPA consent decree, Councilman Dwayne Davis suggested using a portion of the funds to address other projects. 

“I love my clean water, and I love flushing my toilet. I love it all,” he said. “But there are some other things around here that we have to do for the citizens of Meridian.”

Davis suggested submitting $5 million to the state for a match and reserving the other $3.9 million for other projects with higher visibility. Meridian residents, he said, want to see what their money is buying.

Waggoner Engineering’s Scott Phillips, who serves as the project manager for the consent decree, said it was unlikely Meridian would see another opportunity to fund large scale projects without placing the burden on the taxpayers.

“A one-to-one match to take $8.9 million and get in essence $17.8 million to be able to spend for your stormwater, your water and your sewer, is a rare opportunity,” he said.

Although the grant is not guaranteed, Phillips said the City of Meridian is in a good position to meet the grant’s qualifications and be awarded the funds. The top two items MDEQ will look at is demographics and projects that are ready to go on the ground, he said.

“Demographics and ready to go on the ground projects are the two things MDEQ is going to be using to prioritize what they match,” he said. “We have those things, and we’re a little unique to many of the towns and communities around the state.”

Current estimates for the consent decree put the cost at about $126 million, Phillips said. By putting in the city’s full ARPA allotment and receiving a match, there would be $17.8 million less for Meridian taxpayers to pay.

Councilman Joseph Norwood said he could see Davis’ point about high visibility projects and the need for residents to see tangible progress. However, he said, using the ARPA funds for special projects would leave almost $4 million of state matching funds on the table.

In a 4-1 vote, with Davis voting no, the city council approved applying for the state ARPA match using the whole $8.9 million.

The deadline to apply for the funds is September 30.