St. Ignatius to accept federal money
ST. IGNATIUS — After taking public comment at a public hearing on Monday night, the St. Ignatius City Council chose to receive $20,138 in stimulus funds, turning down a motion to refuse the federal dollars allocated for local infrastructure projects.
The debate over whether to accept the stimulus began at the council’s June 2 meeting when the town was briefed on the amount of funds allocated to the city and council member Rod Arlint spoke out in adamant opposition to the stimulus funds calling the federal Recovery Act system “irresponsible” and “not the right solution to encourage economic growth.”
Arlint made a motion to refuse the funds, which was seconded by another council member and supported by Mayor Charles Gariepy, while council member Marine Johnson held out. Johnson said she was surprised by the notion and was not ready to vote. The motion was tabled and put up for public comment at this week’s hearing.
With a dozen concerned citizens in attendance, the comments were overwhelming for accepting the stimulus dollars based on the understanding that all United States citizens would be paying back the money through their taxes regardless, and if refused the funding would simply go to another town where it would be spent.
“I encourage you to accept the funds on two arguments — One, it will be spent somewhere else anyway, and, two, I’m sure we could use the money as Montana is notoriously stingy for funding smaller communities like ours,” resident Harold Young said.
“I say take the money and if there’s any more laying around, well let’s grab that, too.”
Concerned resident Doug Martin also supported taking the funds.
“We pay for it anyway, and there are a number of ideas out there for this money that could benefit our children and grandchildren,” Martin said.
Dave Mangold spoke to the responsibility the city has as stewards of the taxpayers dollar to spend the money wisely on projects that will reduce the impact on resident’s taxes down the line.
“We need to look at the bigger picture,” Mangold said. “We can’t stop the federal government from spending, but if other communities see that St. Ignatius is being fiscally responsible with this money and lowing the taxpayer impact, then maybe they will follow in suit.
“This country was based on local control, and the buck must stop somewhere,” Mangold added.
Council member Johnson commented on councilmen Arlint’s motion, saying it’s the council’s job to administer funds, not pass legislation. Johnson asked Arlint to remove the motion from the table, which he declined.
“If we turn the money down, not only do we lose the funds to another city down the road, but our children still have to fit the bill,” Johnson added.
A vote was taken by the three present council members whether to refuse the money, with the motion failing 2-1. Arlint still entered his vote in favor of the motion.
Now that the matter has been discussed and approved to accept the funding, the issue of how to spend it will be taken up at the council’s next meeting.
The city’s original proposal for the $20,138 in infrastructure grant funding was aimed at spending $12,000 toward paving two city blocks — bringing the total of city grid blocks paved in 2009 to five; $7,560 on a pedestrian path in Taelman Park and $1,709 to install a fence and paint bleachers at the “Blue” ballfield. Those plans were made in March in a short 24-hour window given to them from the state to produce a list of possible projects for application.
The council took public input on many alternative options for the funds and will further discuss the matter at the regular meeting at 7 p.m. on July 7.