Moscow awards another $200K in ARPA funds

MOSCOW — The Moscow City Council awarded more than $200,000 in additional American Rescue Plan Act grant dollars to nonprofits and small businesses Monday.

The city in December allocated $750,000 to its ARPA Small Business and Nonprofit COVID-19 Recovery Grant Program. It has already awarded $387,000 to the 18 businesses and nonprofits that applied.

Nonprofits could apply for money if they added new services or expanded existing services in response to the pandemic — specifically those that address homelessness, behavioral health, nutritional services or educational services.

Businesses were eligible for the grant if they showed a net income loss of more than 25% during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to prepandemic years.

Several of those 18 applicants were allowed to request more from the grant program. There were also new applicants, including Sisters Cookies, Kamiak Coffee Company, Habitat for Humanity, Moscow Affordable Housing Trust, Backyard Harvest, Stax, Latah County Historical Society and Humane Society of the Palouse.

The city councilors Monday went through each applicant and debated whether grant funding was warranted. Few of the votes were unanimous and Mayor Art Bettge had to give the tiebreaker vote for six of the applicants.

Sisters Cookies, Stax and Kamiak Coffee Company received $15,000 each. Habitat for Humanity, Moscow Affordable Housing Trust and Backyard Harvest were granted $25,000 each. The Latah County Historical Society received $20,000.

The Humane Society of the Palouse was denied its $10,000 request with a 3-2 vote from the council because there were questions whether it met the grant program’s qualifications.

Family Promise of the Palouse and Inland Oasis received $25,000 each. That’s in addition to the $25,000 they were awarded in June.

Previous grant awardee Sojourners Alliance received $15,000 in additional funding Monday. Moscow Day School received an additional $17,000.

After Monday’s grant awards, there is still $140,306 left in the ARPA grant program. The city council voted to direct that money toward future water infrastructure projects.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.