Ashland County ARPA Series
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 her an email at mariah@ashlandsource.com.
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ASHLAND — What do a house, a wastewater lift station and 250 gallons of hand sanitizer have in common?
They were all purchased with federal COVID-19 relief dollars in Ashland County, Ohio.
Over the last eight months, reporters Dillon Carr and Mariah Thomas spoke with local officials and pored over public records in an effort to understand how Ashland entities spent $46.6 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Carr pitched the project after attending a training session on ARPA reporting by the Poynter Institute. In April, Ashland Source received a $10,000 grant from the Poynter Institute to support the “follow the money” investigation.
Carr and Thomas wrapped up their ARPA investigation Wednesday with an event at the Ashland Theater. The event featured a panel discussion with local officials, who answered audience-submitted questions about the nuts and bolts of ARPA spending.
We followed the money. Here’s where it went.
Ashland University received roughly $16.9 million in ARPA funding — more than any entity in Ashland County.
Thomas said the university divided those funds into an institutional portion and a student portion.
“A lot of their money for that institutional portion went to lost revenue, which covered a really broad swath of things, from student, room and board to auxiliary services,” Thomas said.
As the only private entity in the county to receive ARPA funds, Ashland University wasn’t obligated to share public records on how it spent its funding.
Nevertheless, Thomas said university leaders did answer questions from reporters.
“They did eventually give me a lot of information about their money and how they spent it, and then I could cross check that with reports that they had to submit to the U.S. Department of Education,” Thomas explained.
“Even though they were private and it wasn’t necessary for them to hand over these records, they did still give me an idea of that money, how much they received, and where it went.”
Ashland County’s public schools received a combined total of $13.1 million. Those funds were used differently in each district. The lion’s share of funds went toward capital projects and other expenditures that would provide a long term benefit to students.
Ashland City Schools spent some of its funding for cleaning supplies like hand sanitizer, but a much bigger chunk went towards new windows and doors at the high school and the removal of asbestos at Taft Intermediate.
“We had already planned the asbestos abatement project that was going to be around $1 million so we were able to use some of this money for that,” Supt. Steve Paramore said during the panel discussion.
Schools were required to spend at least 20% of COVID-19 relief funds to address learning loss. Paramore said Ashland used much of those funds for teacher retention.
Infrastructure spending was a common thread among the city and county, with funds being invested in a new dog shelter, renovated facility for the health department and plans for a new terminal the Ashland County Regional Airport Authority.
Savannah used its funds for a lift station that will improve the village’s housing capacity.
The city of Ashland split $2.1 million among five large projects, including one on Claremont Avenue.
“We wanted to spend the money on projects that people could experience and benefit from for years to come,” Mayor Matt Miller said. “That’s why, right from the beginning, infrastructure projects made the most sense.”
The city also spent some funds on retention bonuses for city employees. Miller said city officials made the choice after the state government provided funds for police and fire department stipends.
“During the COVID pandemic, the city government remained open the entire time. We did not send a single department home. No one worked from home,” Miller said.
“We made up the difference, if you will. The state provided the police and buyers, and we provided out of our money the other employees retention incentive.”
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