This article is open to all free of cost, as the reporting for this entire series was made possible by a grant from the Poynter Institute with support from the Joyce Foundation.
Read all of our reporting on the American Rescue Plan Act’s impact in Ashland County here. And if you have any questions for the reporter, send him an email at dillon@ashlandsource.com.
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ASHLAND — The City of Ashland has spent 72% of a federal grant allocation, meant to alleviate the impact of COVID-19, on updating two streets.
The city received a total of $2.1 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Since then, officials have spent $1.5 million on repaving sections of Claremont Avenue and Sandusky Street.
Another $356,000 was spent on a one-time bonus to all employees as well as updating electricity infrastructure in anticipation of the development of the so-called Pump House District in downtown Ashland.
That leaves $428,988 of unencumbered dollars in the city’s ARPA fund, as of the middle of September.
To review, President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion stimulus package in March 2021.
Ashland Source has spent months combing through public records and datasets to figure out how recipients in Ashland County — local governments, school districts and nonprofits — spent the money.
A total of $46.8 million of ARPA dollars funneled into the county’s various recipients.
All ARPA recipients, including the city, have until Dec. 31, 2024 to obligate the money and another two years to spend it all. If that money goes unencumbered, ARPA regulations require recipients to return the money to the federal government.
Here’s how officials have spent the city’s allocation so far, and the reasoning — and context — behind each expenditure.
Claremont Avenue
Let's start with the city's largest ARPA expenditure so far: Claremont Avenue.
City finance records show four separate invoices making up the total, $1,099,717.75. Most of that money — $1 million to be exact — went to Driven Excavating, LLC, the construction firm from Crestline hired for the job.
Larry Paxton, the city's finance director, said those payments paid for supplies and labor. Invoices confirm those expenditures, pointing to things like PVC pipes, traffic maintenance, pavement removal and curb removal, among others.
The other invoices, paid out to Wallace Pancher Group, covered expenses related to designing the entire project.
| Project | Expenditure | Payee |
| Claremont Avenue | $510,279.11 | Driven Excavating, LLC |
| $489,720.89 | Driven Excavating, LLC | |
| $87,986.25 | Wallace Pancher Group | |
| $11,731.50 | Wallace Pancher Group |
Spending that extra million on Claremont Avenue was not part of the plan, Ashland Mayor Matt Miller said.
"We were planning to replace the water line while we had the foundation ripped up, but I think it was all those ancillary things that we weren't necessarily prepared to do," Miller said.
When the city bid the project originally in March 2022, officials expected it to cost $3.6 million. That figure swelled when a lone bidder estimated it at $4.6 million, forcing the city to seek additional bids and reconfigure the scope of the work.
When the city restarted its search for contractors, the project’s estimate climbed to $5.4 million because it included foundational repairs, some curb replacements, drainage issue work, the installation of sidewalks and the water line replacement.
When workers dug into Claremont Avenue, they found a water line in rough shape, forcing change orders.
In total, the Claremont Avenue project, described by some officials as a "headache" and a "mess," drew from half a dozen accounts to help pay for it all — including the streets fund, water capital improvement fund, state highway fund and city and county permissive tax funds.
Still, the repaving of Claremont Avenue isn't finished.
Sarver Paving will repave between Smith Road and West Liberty Street beginning the last week of September. That money, however, is coming from the city's streets fund.
State Route 96 (Sandusky Street)
The city entered into an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation in November 2023 to get two major city portions of state roads repaved.
The $4.4 million project, although largely funded through ODOT grant money, required a local match. Kaitlyn Thompson, an ODOT spokeswoman, said Ashland's portion equates to $927,782.
So far, city officials have used $426,000 of ARPA money to cover part of the local match, and another roughly $320,000 has come from a variety of other funds, such as the streets fund, city permissive and state highway funds.
| Project | Expenditure | Payee |
| State Route 96 | $426,520.67 | State of Ohio, Treasurer |
ODOT's project includes milling and paving the entire length of Sandusky Street (State Route 96) within the city, along with upgrading sidewalks and handicap-access points. Work on that road has finished.
It also involves milling and paving the city's portion of U.S. Route 42. Crews have begun milling the road, but the contractor (Kokosing) has until Nov. 1 to complete the work.
Pump House District electricity
In April, the city paid Ohio Edison $219,000 to "remove and bury power lines" in the Pump House district area. The money also went to installing infrastructure needed to power the former Pump House office building, Miller said.
| Project | Expenditure | Payee |
| Pump House District | $219,711.56 | Ohio Edison |
The city's invoice reads "remove/relocate overhead facilities to underground around Orange Street and East Fourth Street."
That work, however, hasn't started yet. Contractors await Armstrong's and Frontier's removal of fiber lines attached to power poles, and Ashland Railway's construction of another rail spur, Miller said.
The financial transaction to Ohio Edison occurred three days following city council's approval of a one-of-a-kind tax abatement with Pump House Hospitality LLC. The incentive, known as a Community Reinvestment Area agreement, gave the company a 100% property tax abatement for 15 years, a first for Ashland.
It means property taxes will not be owed by the hotel owners until approximately 2041, assuming it's operational in 2026.
Neither the city's CRA agreement nor purchase agreement with Pump House Hospitality LLC provide details about the electrical utilities of the building and surrounding Pump House district.
When asked if it's typical for Ashland to offer incentives like tax abatements and utility updates for prospective developers, Miller said the city wants to "set the stage" for redevelopment in the Pump House District.
"We always try to work with companies," he said. "But I don't know if it's typical.
"That ($219,711.56) investment means we'll have the redevelopment of a brownfield in our community."
The mayor said the $219,000 expense could lead to the development of the Pump House District, a planned construction that involves a new hotel, apartments, an urban meadow and potential commercial spaces.
Pump House Hospitality LLC and the city haven't closed on the Pump House building, county records show. According to the purchase agreement, the vacant building is being sold for $1,000.
Read more about the pump house building
Miller said the company is "still finalizing (its) financing."
"I get no impression that their struggling (to secure financing)," he said.
The $21.5 million project, bankrolled by Home 2 Suites by Hilton, calls for renovating the Pump House office building that has sat vacant for years. It includes an addition totaling 68,078 square-feet, and 94 “suite-style” rooms, according to the city’s ordinance outlining the deal.
It will also feature “a marketplace, a conference room and guest laundry,” according to the city’s ordinance.
The hotel is expected to create up to 15 full-time positions and 10 part-time employees, yielding a $1.1 million yearly payroll.
Employee Bonuses
In December 2023, the city paid part-time and salaried employees $750 in the form of a one-time bonus. The payout didn't include elected officials, police and fire personnel.
"(Police and fire personnel) received a separate incentive payment through other grant programs," Paxton said.
Miller said he and officials referred to the bonus as a "retention incentive."
| Project | Expenditure | Payee |
| Employee Retention Program | $136,186.64 | 178 part-time and salaried city employees |
Miller said city employees didn't skip a beat during the pandemic, despite many governmental agencies and businesses that either laid off employees, offered remote working options or modified working hours.
"My philosophy is, if there is anyone that needs to be at the helm, it should be our public officials and those that are providing our vital community services," Miller said.
So, those city workers kept showing up to work, the mayor said.
"Thank you, Lord, they stayed," he said of the employees. "Rhat meant they were at greater risk because they were interacting with customers and citizens everyday."
The bonus, therefore, was the city leaders' way of thanking the employees who showed up to work during the pandemic, Miller said.
Did these expenditures lead to the benefit of 'disadvantaged people?'
The U.S. Treasury intended that the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program — the pot of ARPA money sent to local governments like Ashland — be used to “support a truly equitable recovery and address health and economic disparities, exacerbated by the pandemic, in the most underserved communities.”
To define who those people might be, the federal government built a map using 2010 census data (2020 numbers weren’t yet completed at the time). Below is a map that zooms in on Ashland County.
There are three areas within the city that qualify as disadvantaged areas.
Miller has said the city didn't make decisions surrounding uses of ARPA money through the "disadvantaged" lens. Instead, the expenses were used to help bring to fruition large infrastructure initiatives that would last for generations and benefit everyone, he said.
But two of the four ARPA expenditures went to disadvantaged areas of the city: the Pump House District and part of Sandusky Street.
“We always had the approach: what projects can you do that will further stimulate your local economy? Because we’ve all been so hard-hit.
“We didn’t want to squander the money. We wanted to use it on projects that would have a long lifespan and an impact for years to come,” he said.
Get involved
What do you think? Let your voice be heard by taking Ashland Source's survey. Responses can be anonymous.
Previous reporting has revealed that $428,988 remains in the city's ARPA fund, and many of you have opinions on how that money should be encumbered before the looming Dec. 31 deadline. S
hould residents be more involved with the decision-making process before that money has to be returned to the federal government?
Let us know by filling out the poll below. (And make sure you hit "Submit" after making your choice.)
Reporting for this series was made possible by a grant from the Poynter Institute with support from the Joyce Foundation.
Sebastian Rosemont contributed to this report by building a GIS map of disadvantaged areas within Ashland County.