NCWRPC Newsletter - Spring 2021

NCWRPC News | Spring 2021 | Issue 72

North Central Wisconsin

Regional Planning Commission

Serving Adams, Forest, Juneau, Langlade, Lincoln,

Marathon, Oneida, Portage, Vilas, and Wood Counties since 1973

The American Rescue Plan - What Does it Mean for Your Community?

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), signed into law on March 11, 2021, provides $1.9 trillion in mandatory funding, program changes and tax policies aimed at mitigating the continuing effects of the pandemic. Included are significant funds for States, local, and tribal governments.

Nationwide, local governments will directly receive a total of $130.2 billion, with half or $65.1 billion going to counties, and the other half to cities, villages, and towns, generally allocated according to population. Wisconsin is expected to receive over $5.6 billion dollars, with about half of that going to counites and local units.

In our ten-county region we expect about $140 million – an estimated $85 million to our counties and over $55 million to our cities, villages, and towns. Tribes will also receive funding, but no information is available at this time related to amounts. See the estimated allocations table below:

These funds are coming soon; they will be distributed through the Treasury Department, with the first half available 60 days from the signing of the bill and the balance one year later. Communities will have three years to spend the funds. These dollars represent the largest federal infusion to budgets in decades. Now, the challenge is how to best to utilize these dollars.

So, what can these dollars be used for? According to language in the ARP Act, funds can be used for the following purposes:

To respond to the coronavirus health impacts or economic impacts including assistance to households, small businesses, nonprofits, and impacted industries including hospitality, travel, and tourism.
By providing premium pay for essential workers up to $13 an hour with an annual cap of $25,000.
To cover for lost revenue in providing services.
To make investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.

Note that the US Treasury is still crafting the final language and reporting requirements. There is some discussion that the fourth bullet related to infrastructure might be expanded to include bridges and roads. The National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, as well as various state associations are spending substantial time reviewing the details of the ARPA. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has a very detailed report showing detail for each county, city, village, and town. Check out those websites, as well as our website, for more detailed information.

A recent Brookings blog entitled “How should local leaders use their ARP funding?” suggests a community take a three-pronged approach to using their ARP funding. These are Stabilize, Strategize, and Organize.

Stabilize. ARP provides local governments with the resources to stabilize their operating budgets. Many governments incurred large deficits in 2020, as the economic slowdown hurt tax revenues and local governments assumed significant pandemic-related costs. To remedy this imbalance, many cities pared back essential services: First responders, sanitation workers, planning personnel, and other government employees faced hours reductions and furloughs. Other governments cut back on contracts with agencies delivering vital social services.

Strategize. ARP allows local governments to invest in infrastructure and launch programs to support workers and small businesses. Those investments can be spent directly by public entities or funneled through nonprofits. The funding’s magnitude and flexibility suggest that local governments should be strategic in deploying any ARP funds that extend beyond basic budget stabilization. In making investments, local leaders should consider four factors:

Immediacy. People and businesses are hurting. Businesses need capital to reopen doors, and people need outreach and skills development to match them to available jobs. While it is important to consider an investment’s impact beyond the immediate term, providing such immediate help is a necessary baseline for a longer-term recovery.
Inclusivity. An important lesson from last year’s CARES Act is that moving resources very quickly through existing systems can exacerbate economic and racial inequality. Many minority-owned microbusinesses did not access loans through the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program due to lack of awareness, lack of connectivity, and discrimination.
Future prosperity. Local leaders thus have a chance to invest in future growth and prosperity, the impacts of which will extend beyond near-term expenditure needs.
Complementarity. Ideally, ARP investments can boost strategies already in progress.

Organize. While ARP money flows through cities and counties, the most effective public officials know that deploying it will require a team.

Stabilization is easiest to determine, just look to where spending was up for PPE and overtime, etc. and fill the hole. However, being strategic and organized with the remaining funds is more challenging. One-time dollars need to be impactful and create long-term positive change. Some of this relates to planning. Start by looking at your comprehensive plans and various other local planning documents. There are numerous recommendations identified within all of them. That is a start. Consider forming a committee to examine these and other items, set goals, seek public input, evaluate, recommend, and track results. Maybe talk with your neighboring governments or area agencies and work together. The goal should be to invest in those projects that will bring the greatest return on investment to your community and our region. Good luck!

Feel free to reach out to our office if you have any questions. We may not have all the answers but can connect you with those that do. Contact Dennis Lawrence at dlawrence@ncwrpc.org or (715) 849-5510, Extension 304, to discuss a possible project.

For more information, check out these sites:

Brookings - How Should Local Leaders Use Their ARP Funding?

Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau - American Rescue Plan Act Overview

New Localism - Maximizing ARPA from the Ground Up

NACo - State and Local Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Funds

NCWRPC CARES Act Update

Earlier last year the North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission was awarded a grant from the US Economic Development Administration (EDA) to help with the economic recovery of the region as a result of the coronavirus. Every town, village, city, and county has been impacted. The scope of work supports activities to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic, and to respond to economic injury as a result of coronavirus. To date, the NCWRPC has made notable progress on the Regional Recovery Plan effort, the Regional Health Pandemic and Future Response effort, and in their Technical Assistance and Planning Support efforts.

Regional Recovery Plan Planning Effort

NCWRPC Staff and members of the Regional Recovery Plan Committee met for the first time on February 17. This meeting began with a review of the CARES Act and an overview of the scope of work for the CARES Act grant award that NCWRPC was awarded to help spur economic recovery within the Region. Next, the Committee reviewed drafts of the first three chapters of the Regional Recovery Plan, which discuss the economic and social environment within the Region before the pandemic started in early 2020 and the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the Region since early 2020.

After reviewing the economic environment and the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had throughout the Region, the Regional Recovery Plan Committee identified the core issues that the Regional Recovery Plan will address in efforts to help boost economic recovery and resiliency within the Region. These core issues include:

Broadband
Childcare
Jobs and the Economy
Housing and Transportation
Impacts on the Tourism & Hospitality Industries

The Regional Recovery Plan Committee will hold their second meeting on April 19. This meeting will include an overview of Broadband and Childcare within the Region. This overview will describe the current status of broadband and childcare within the Region, the threats currently facing and created by a lack of broadband and childcare, how broadband and childcare have been impacted by COVID-19, the benefits of expanding and enhancing access to broadband and childcare, and the vision for broadband and childcare within the Region. The second meeting will also help to finalize the development of the survey that will be conducted as part of the Regional Recovery Plan.

For more information about NCWRPC's Regional Recovery Plan effort, please contact Eric Sonnleitner at (715) 849-5510, Extension 306 or at esonnleitner@ncwrpc.org.

Regional Health Pandemic and Future Response

The Regional Health Pandemic and Future Response Committee met for the first time on February 9. This Committee includes health officers from all ten member counties and two tribes. In addition, it includes coordinators from various agencies including those dealing with healthcare emergency readiness, seniors, those with disabilities, transportation professionals, and other health professionals. This meeting included review of survey questionnaire results that were completed in late 2020. The Committee identified issues and opportunities related to the county and tribal health department response efforts related to the coronavirus pandemic. The Committee has chosen to focus on the following four areas:

Investing in public health in the state and thereby the region
Meeting health agency objectives during the COVID-19 pandemic
Building on intergovernmental and interagency collaboration
Creating health equity

For more information about NCWRPC's Regional Health Pandemic and Future Response effort, please contact Carrie Edmondson at (715) 849-5510, Extension 311 or at cedmondson@ncwrpc.org.

Technical Assistance & Planning Support

As part of our Technical Assistance efforts, the NCWRPC has continued to provide general technical assistance and capacity building for member organizations, local businesses and other local stakeholders impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including grant application assistance. To date, the NCWRPC has assisted or is currently assisting the following entities in preparing grant applications:

City of Antigo – Saratoga Industrial Park Roadway Expansion
Village of Marathon City – Marathon City North Business Park Expansion
City of Wisconsin Rapids – City of Wisconsin Rapids Recovery and Redevelopment Effort
City of Wausau – Wausau Recovery and Resiliency Project
CREATE Portage County – CREATE Your Community
City of Elroy
Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

The NCWRPC is also continuing to offer planning support as well. Planning support will be provided for a variety of activities such as, workforce housing, broadband, downtown development, freight rail, paper & forestry, tourism & recreation, comprehensive planning, as well as other planning efforts at the local, tribal, county, regional, and state levels. As part of these efforts, the NCWRPC is assisting the Wausau Metro Region and Grow North in the development of workforce housing assessments.

For more information about NCWRPC's Technical Assistance & Planning Support efforts, please contact Dennis Lawrence at (715) 849-5510, Extension 304 or at dlawrence@ncwrpc.org.

Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy

(CEDS) Adopted

The 2021 CEDS Update was adopted at our January Commission meeting. The document is posted on our website here. The CEDS is prepared as part of our role as the region’s designated Economic Development District (EDD) by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA). The CEDS provides a detailed assessment of economic development conditions in the EDD, identifies regional goals and objectives, outlines a Regional Economic Development Strategy, and includes a list of critical regional investment projects. This document also serves as background for the Regional Recovery Plan currently underway.

Since NCWRPC’s designation as an EDD, we have successfully secured over $25 million dollars from EDA for projects identified in our CEDS to spur regional economic development. Some recent projects include a Workforce Training & Entrepreneur Center in Lac du Flambeau, a wastewater treatment plant upgrade in Wisconsin Rapids, the Wood Technology Center of Excellence in Antigo, business park expansions in the cities of Adams and Mauston, and a back-up power generation system in Eagle River. All of these were funded under EDA’s regular grant programs.

Last year, EDA was provided supplemental funding under the CARES Act and hopefully soon, we will be able to announce the projects funded in our region under that program. EDA will also receive a $3 Billion allocation as part of the recently signed American Rescue Plan Act. New rules are being developed for these funds and they should be available late May or early June. Contact our office if your community has an economic development related project idea for possible funding. We can assist in preparing a grant application for you.

If you have any questions contact Dennis Lawrence at (715) 849-5510, Extension 304 or at dlawrence@ncwrpc.org or Eric Sonnleitner at (715) 849-5510, Extension 306 or at esonnleitner@ncwrpc.org.

WROC Completes Aerial Imagery Program

The Wisconsin Regional Orthoimagery Consortium (WROC) completed the first region wide 6” leaf-off dataset for the North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission region. WROC returned $60,000 in funds to members within the NCWRPC region. These funds come from federal, state, and private partners that help cost-share local county projects. This program is a great example of counties in the region working together to benefit everyone.

WROC was also recently selected for an Engineering Excellence Best of State Award by ACEC Wisconsin. This marks the fourth time that WROC has received this honor. The WROC 2020 program had the highest level of county and municipal participation yet, which spurred significant partnerships from a wide array of public and private sector partners. For the first time in program history, all county members acquired 6” pixel orthos or better, with seven counties acquiring 3” pixel orthos. This led to partnerships to create a 12” pixel statewide leaf-off ortho layer, also a first in program history.

Read the ACEC Press Release

More Details on WROC

For more information contact Andy Faust, 715-849-5510, ext. 305 or afaust@ncwprc.org.

Is it Time to Update Your Comprehensive Plan?

Wisconsin’s Comprehensive Plan law was established in 1999 and over the last two decades many communities have adopted comprehensive plans. However, did you know, the law also requires that every ten years your plan needs to be updated? So, every plan completed in 2010 or earlier is due for an update. There is no formal definition of an update in state statute, but we recommend a basic update where all demographic information is revised, along with tables and charts, where all goals and objectives are reviewed, and where all new maps are prepared.

Displayed on the map below is the current “Plan Status Map” according to the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA). It shows communities that are due for an update, along with those already underway, and those with a current plan. Review the map and see if your community needs to update its plan. If there is an error in the map, the state may not have the most current information for your community. As part of the plan law, communities must provide information on updates to a variety of entities, including DOA.

Comprehensive Plan Status Map

Also note that under current law, certain ordinances enacted or amended by a local governmental unit that affect land use, such as local subdivision regulations and zoning ordinances, must be consistent with your current comprehensive plan. This is a critical reason to keep your plan current.

A strength of Wisconsin’s planning law is that every local unit of government decides its own vision of the future. The plan update process is a great time for a community to review what has happened over the last decade, but more importantly to prepare for future challenges. Remember, the only constant is change and the planning process is one way to develop a strategy to positively address that change.

We can help you update your comprehensive plan. Give our office a call and we can discuss the best approach for your community. Contact Dennis Lawrence at (715) 849-5510, Extension 304 or at dlawrence@ncwrpc.org.

Apply to Partner With UW-Madison's UniverCity Year

UniverCity Year, a program aimed at finding practical solutions to community-based challenges, is seeking new local government partners for the 2020-2023 academic years. The deadline to apply is Monday, July 27, 2020.

A three-year partnership between a Wisconsin city, county, or municipal entity and University of Wisconsin-Madison, UniverCity Year (UCY) engages with government partners through a simple process. First, the partner identifies a set of issues or questions (for example, health related initiatives, park designs, sustainability projects, etc.). Then, UCY matches those priorities with UW–Madison courses where faculty and students develop recommendations. Finally, the local government partner receives research, reports, designs, and proposals, as well as help in implementing them.

If you have any questions about crafting your proposal, please contact Gavin Luter via email at gavin@cows.org or by phone at (608) 261-1141. More information is also available online at www.univercity.wisc.edu/ucy.

Don't Forget - Pavement Rating Mandate

Redistricting Timeline

Spring is coming fast! If you haven’t scheduled your local road surface condition ratings for this year, now is the time to contact us. The State of Wisconsin requires the submission of this local road surface rating data by December 15th, so get scheduled now. Pavement rating and submission services are free-of-charge for Commission member communities.

If you think your community would like to utilize the services of the NCWRPC to help you with this pavement rating mandate, please contact Darryl Landeau, AICP at 715-849-5510 extension 308 or dlandeau@ncwrpc.org.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it will deliver the Public Law 94-171 redistricting data to all states by September 30, 2021. COVID-19-related delays and prioritizing the delivery of the apportionment results delayed the Census Bureau’s original plan to deliver the redistricting data to the states by March 31, 2021.

So, the timeline for local redistricting will need to be adjusted to accommodate the delay of the data release. At this time, the state has not announced what the new timeline will be. The Wisconsin Counties Association has a proposal to use the existing districts for the next election and start the process of redistricting on September 30^th and finish in mid-May of 2022.

Any change will require legislative action to statute 59.10 (3) to extend the deadline. We will reach out when we have more information.

For more information contact Andy Faust, afaust@ncwrpc.org. or 715-849-5510 ext. 305.

EMSI Analyst Reports

The NCWRPC continues its partnership with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to provide economic development analysis data throughout the Region. A comprehensive economic modeling program, called Analyst, developed by Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) is a tool that provides industry/ occupation data, impact assessments, and economic base analysis information.

Detailed quarterly summary economic reports have been prepared for each county. Those are available on our website. Requests for additional data can also be made on the website at http://www.ncwrpc.org/emsi/data-request/.

2021 1st Quarter Economic Overviews