The City of Crawfordsville is bringing in the lawyers to help make sense of the federal government’s latest stimulus package, Mayor Todd Barton said Monday.
Attorneys from Indianapolis law firm Barnes & Thornburg will be hired to advise the city on how it can spend its portion of the American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law in March. The Board of Public Works and Safety is expected to approve the agreement today.
Crawfordsville will receive $3.2 million in direct funding and can apply for additional money through other sources.
“We expect money to arrive pretty soon, and then we’ll have to sort out where we go from there,” Barton told members of the City Council’s Fiscal Affairs Committee during their meeting in the City Building.
The city also turned to Barnes & Thornburg when the CARES Act was passed last year. The firm launched a program to decipher the sprawling economic relief package for local governments, which Montgomery County also participated in.
“Until we know really what those options are, then we can’t really have much of a discussion of how we move forward,” Barton said.
Barton said the city would then return to the council for discussions on using the money.
The American Rescue Plan directed $350 billion to state, local and tribal relief.
