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. If you have any questions for the reporter, send him an email at dillon@ashlandsource.com.
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ASHLAND — Every penny of the Ashland County Board of Commissioners’ American Rescue Plan Act is tied to various projects.
Commissioners received a total of $10,388,640 between 2021 and 2022. Since then, commissioners have either spent or earmarked all of it, mostly on capital projects — from a brand new dog shelter to new windows at the courthouse, and repairing an underground bridge.
County records show 161 purchase orders totaling $8,958,499.22.
The rest is encumbered.
To make sense of it all, Ashland Source organized the county’s expenses and encumbrances in a series of tables.
But first, let’s explain how officials decided to categorize the money.
Lost revenue
Within the 243-page American Rescue Plan Act, a provision exists that allowed governments to “declare $10 million of (ARPA’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds [SLFRF]) as ‘lost revenue,'” or “revenue replacement.”
Why is that important? Because the U.S. Treasury presumed “that each jurisdiction experienced up to $10 million in lost revenue” during the pandemic.
If governments chose to categorize their allocations in this way, as the Ashland County Board of Commissioners did, the revenue replacement funds could be spent on general government services “without having to demonstrate actual revenue loss,” according to a University of North Carolina School of Government article on ARPA.
There are pros and cons here.
The Brookings Institute, a D.C. think tank, wrote the advantages of this provision include fiscal stability, the prevention of furloughs and layoffs and the continuance of essential services.
This also made it easier for smaller governments across the U.S. to participate in the SLFRF program.
“The flexibilities the revenue-loss provision affords are much-needed for small governments, for which creating comprehensive compliance and reporting systems was unrealistic while dealing with the COVID-19 emergency,” reads a Brookings analysis.
“Therefore, reducing the burden of federal program compliance in these areas allowed Treasury to make SLFRF implementable for even the smallest of local governments.”
The drawback, however, was this provision made it harder to track how exactly this money was spent.
“The Treasury intended that the SLFRF program be used to ‘support a truly equitable recovery and address health and economic disparities, exacerbated by the pandemic, in the most underserved communities.’ By allowing greater flexibility to local governments, they may deviate from this stated purpose,” noted the Brookings analysis.
Again, Ashland County received $10,388,640. Officials categorized $10 million of it as lost revenue.
The other $388,640, according to a document at the treasurer’s office, went to help fund water and sewer infrastructure costs at Cinnamon Lake.
Public records reveal that most of the county’s ARPA money went to infrastructure projects around the county.
But most of it (76%) went to five initiatives.
#1: Subgrants to villages
Ashland County commissioners were one of the first in Ohio to earmark this money, a total of $2,945,970 to be exact.
In August and September 2021, they sought applications from villages (and the city of Ashland) for subgrants that would help pay for water and sewer infrastructure projects around the county.
| Community | Amount Granted |
| Bailey Lakes | $220,000 |
| City of Ashland | $250,000 |
| Hayesville | $500,000 |
| Jeromesville | $500,000 |
| Loudonville | $376,275 |
| Mifflin | $200,000 |
| Perrysville | $500,000 |
| Polk | $20,000 |
| Savannah | $379,695 |
| Total | $2,945,970 |
“Villages basically never get the funding they need for those projects,” said commissioner Jim Justice.
He would know. Justice served as a councilman in Hayesville for 10 years, and then as the village’s mayor for another decade. Voters elected him to the county seat in 2016.
“Those projects were needed probably 10 years ago,” he said. “We saw a need and wanted to fill that.
“They would have never been able to do that any other way.”
A total of eight villages took advantage of the county’s program, along with the city of Ashland. To qualify for the funds, it was simple.
The community’s leaders had to present a water or sewer infrastructure need at a public meeting. Commissioners then announced recipients at another public meeting.
But these communities also had to prove they had applied for ARPA dollars from the federal government, Justice said.
“A couple (villages) hadn’t applied for their ARPA dollars yet,” he said.
Villages in Ashland County received roughly $819,000 in ARPA funds. Village officers applied for that funding first.
#2: Ashland County Health Department
In the end, commissioners spent a total of $2,609,154.11 for a new health department.
That figure includes the roughly $850,000 it cost to purchase the former 11,000 square-foot Rite Aid building along Claremont Avenue, and the renovations finished by Simonson Construction.
Construction began in late 2022 and wrapped by July 2023.
#3: New dog shelter
Commissioners spent $1,388,345.14 on the new dog shelter on Baney Road.
The shelter ended up costing more than double that. Officials opened it September 2023, but dogs weren’t sheltered there until the following the month.
#4: Ashland County Court of Common Pleas
So far, commissioners have spent $901,350.61 of ARPA dollars on a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and the replacement of windows.
Commissioners, however, are holding a small payment ($4,150) on some of the windows because they believe the contractor, Advanced Concepts, did not install them properly.
Advanced Concepts was not immediately available to comment, but Nikki Hiller, the commissioner’s clerk, said the company has blamed the manufacturer for the issue.
#5: Ashland County Regional Airport Authority
Commissioners earmarked a total of $794,150.38 in ARPA dollars toward the airport authority’s plans to build a new terminal.
That figure represents two separate encumbrances. County records show commissioners granted this project $550,000 in February 2022. Since then, commissioners gave another $244,150.38 toward the project.
Officials have estimated the 4,000 square-foot terminal building to cost $1.5 million, which includes space for a flight school, a pilot lounge and a community room large enough to host groups of up to 30 people, a bathroom with a shower and a public restroom.
Work has yet to begin, said Michael Welch. Officials applied for a $300,000 grant from JobsOhio and recently received it. One of the grant’s stipulations prevents contractors (Simonson Construction in this case) to begin work.
Welch said construction will likely begin in March of 2025.
How much has been spent already?
All of the county’s ARPA money has been obligated, but it has yet to be spent in its entirety. The chart below shows how much has been spent versus how much is left.
The table below breaks down each expense, along with notes on what the money bought. Where applicable, there are links to various Ashland Source stories in the “Notes” column that provide more specifics.
| Department/Project | Total Expenses | Payees | Notes |
| Ashland County Sheriff’s Office | $266,565.88 | James P. Finnegan Construction; The Seckel Group; Adena Corporation | Isolation cell and a nurse’s station. |
| Ashland County Court of Common Pleas | $901,350.61 | Advanced Concepts | HVAC repair and window replacements. |
| Villages | $2,041,684.25 | Various contractors | Water/sewer projects in eight villages and the city of Ashland. |
| Ashland County Airport Authority | $81,167.00 | Stantec Techologies; VSWC Architects; Alber & Rice, Inc.; Simonson Construction | New terminal design. |
| Insurance | $128,007.78 | Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield | Insurance dollars spent on Covid-19 during 2021 |
| Ashland County Agricultural Society Inc. | $48,380.25 | Mule’s Hauling and Excavating | Installing sewer lines at Clouser, Timken campgrounds and catch basins near cafeteria and Mozelle Hall. |
| Ashland County Health Department | $2,609,154.11 | Simonson Construction | Building purchase and renovation. |
| Foundations Community Childcare | $500,000 | Foundations Community Childcare | The money went toward the construction of the childcare facility. Read more here. |
| Ashland County Recorder’s Office | $79,984.82 | Kofile Technologies Inc. | Digitizing plat books. |
| Ashland County Dog Shelter | $1,388,345.14 | Simonson Construction | Construction of a new dog shelter. |
| Ashland County Park District | $5,000 | Friends of the Park District | Donation to the Davy Project. |
| Ashland County Clerk of Courts | $184,995.00 | Strategic Solutions | Records scanning. |
| Cinnamon Lake | $379,267.27 | Simonson Construction; Great Lakes Demolition Co.; Makeever & Associates; Lorain County Rural Wastewater District | Upgrades to sewer infrastructure at Cinnamon Lake subdivision. |
| Ashland County Engineer’s Office | $300,000 | Adena Corporation | Repair of underground bridge on West Main Street. |
How much remains?
The rest of the county’s ARPA allocation, $1,470,503.63, has yet to be spent. But the money is encumbered — or obligated. Government subdivisions has until Dec. 31 to encumber these funds.
The county, and every other government subdivision, has until the end of 2026 to spend it all.
Below is a table that represents the money encumbered but not yet spent.
| Department/Project | Amount Left |
| Ashland County Agricultural Society Inc. | $10,243.75 |
| Village of Bailey Lakes | $203,500.00 |
| Village of Jeromesville | $477,490.00 |
| Village of Perrysville | $28,582.62 |
| Village of Savannah | $10,383.52 |
| Village of Loudonville | $2,038.16 |
| Village of Mifflin | $168,791.45 |
| Loraine County Rural Wastewater District (Cinnamon Lake) | $100,641.13 |
| Ashland County Airport Authority | $468,833.00 |
Two line items, however, represent extra money for projects that have not yet been expended. The $244,150.38 figure represents extra money set aside for Simonson’s construction of the new airport terminal, Hiller said.
| Department/Project | Amount Set Aside |
| Simonson Construction | $244,150.38 |
| Advanced Concepts | $4,150 |
The smaller number, $4,150, represents the amount not yet paid to Advanced Concepts for the county courthouse window project.
Roughly $500,000 in interest earnings
The county commissioners held the ARPA allocation at the State Treasury Asset Reserve (STAR Ohio) of Ohio, earning around 5% interest. STAR Ohio is an investment pool that allows the state’s governmental subdivisions to invest in “high-grade, short-term securities.”
From 2022 to November 2024, commissioners have earned $480,695.23, according to Angie McQuillen, the county’s treasurer.
| Year | Interest Earned |
| 2022 | $106,923.32 |
| 2023 | $235,939.36 |
| 2024 (through November) | $137,832.55 |
The office also reimbursed itself $54,199.45 — money not spent on the construction of the new health department.
That money — between the earned interest and the extra money from the dog shelter — will likely end up back in the county’s general fund, commissioners said.
“We’re saving for a lot of capital projects,” said Denny Bittle, an Ashland County commissioner.