The Washington County Board of Supervisors discussed formulating how to spend the approximate $4.27 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan that was passed in March during their Tuesday meeting.

The supervisors mentioned that they have so far received exactly half of the allocation so far, which can be used in areas including responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency or its negative economic impacts, providing government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue, making necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure, providing premium pay to eligible workers of the county performing essential work during the pandemic, or providing grants to eligible employers that perform essential work.

The supervisors discussed how large of a committee should be formed to determine the fund uses, and Public Health Administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski suggested they include representatives from other organizations like the Washington Economic Development Group or Washington Chamber of Commerce to find other areas in need of financial assistance, “It would be really helpful if we had that diversity from the community, people who were experts in this and doing smaller groups kind of focusing on some of these issues moving forward so we can not only think about the holistic impact of everything that was impacted by COVID-19.”

No action was taken during Tuesday’s meeting, as Board Chair Richard Young stated they would seek feedback from department heads before forming a group or set of groups to evaluate allocations next week.