After accepting a large grant from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, the City of Hillsdale is making plans to provide pay incentives for the police department, fund leaf collection, repair street infrastructure, and upgrade the internet at the municipal airport.
The city expects to receive a grand total of $837,662.
Hillsdale City Manager David Mackie said the state government approved Hillsdale’s grant application Sept. 3.
The agreement stipulates that Hillsdale will receive half of the grant money, about $400,000, this year. Those funds should arrive by Oct. 3, Mackie said. The second half of the grant should arrive next year.
Mackie said the city applied for the grant through the state government, which will disburse funds through the state treasury.
The city of Hillsdale will use these funds for various projects, such as providing pay incentives for police officers to stay with the department. Mackie said this would ensure that the city has a fully staffed police force. Officers will receive higher pay incentives the longer they work with the department, he said.
Funds from the grant will also help the city government provide curbside leaf collection. According to the Hillsdale Daily News, the city of Hillsdale voted to pass a property tax for curbside leaf collection. The funds from this grant will not offset any tax dollars already dedicated to the leaf collecting service, Mackie said. Rather, the grant will help purchase leaf collecting equipment.
Additionally, the grant will go toward repairing street infrastructure in multiple areas around the city.
According to Mackie, the intersection at South Manning and East Bacon streets sometimes floods during storms. Nearby, he said, the Center City Apartments also flood easily. Mackie said the grant money would go toward conducting a cost estimate for repairs in this area.
Funds from the Rescue Act would also be used to improve drainage at Westwood and Sumac drives, Mackie said, where water and sewer mains have broken repeatedly over the years.
The city government is also planning to upgrade internet service at the Hillsdale Municipal Airport. According to Mackie, the internet service at the airport is “fairly slow.” To fix this, local officials are considering ways to connect the airport with the city network. One option is to place a radio device on top of the town’s water tower, he said.
The American Rescue Plan Act was enacted March 11, 2021. The act was passed through Congress along purely partisan lines, with both House and Senate Republicans voting unanimously against the bill.
Professor of Political Economy Gary Wolfram said he disagrees with the American Rescue Plan Act.
“The bill itself was way larger than it should have been. It has a lot of things which are increasing the role of government. And clearly, it didn’t pass with bipartisan support,” he said. “I would have voted against the bill, had I been a congressman.”
Wolfram said the people are already paying their taxes for these funds. Because the money is already there, he said, the city should take advantage of it.
“If you don’t shoot the buffalo, somebody 100 yards down the road is going to shoot the buffalo,” he said. “Whether you believe in a limited role of government or not, once it’s there, then your responsibility as a legislator ought to be to get as much of it for your constituents as you can.”
Mackie explained the city’s approach in accepting this grant.
“We took it from the approach of, this is what they’ll allow us to use it for,” he said. “With the infrastructure and water and sewer projects, we wouldn’t normally have three or four hundred thousand dollars lying around. So the lion’s share of the money is going to those things, and it will offset the cost.”
Hillsdale County has also accepted a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act. The county’s grant is much larger than the city’s, at a sum of $8.6 million.
According to an email from County Commissioner Kathleen Schmitt, the county government has only received $4.3 million thus far, and it has not yet begun spending the money. She said Hillsdale County is currently considering uses for these funds.
“The county is working on formulating the list of project areas that need to be addressed that qualify for use of these funds,” Schmitt said. “The Board of Commissioners will determine the priority of projects to be funded.”
