ROANOKE, Va. – The City of Roanoke is closing in on how it wants to spend $64.5 million from the American Rescue Plan.
On Monday night, the Star City Strong citizen’s panel hosted a public hearing for feedback on their work so far. The crowd was the largest we’ve seen for the group so far, with dozens sharing their own ideas on how to spend the money.
The meeting was the group’s second to last before they propose their recommendation to the city council.
“And that’s why we’ve created all the different ways, again through surveys, focus groups, come to the public hearing, serve on the panel, all of those different ways because it is, it’s a lot of money, it’s $64.5 million,” city manager Bob Cowell said.
The panel has narrowed it down into three buckets: people, places and governance. Monday night’s meeting once again opened it up to a few dozen citizens to give their comments on how the money should be spent.
“What the panel wanted to do was to get far enough into the discussions where they had formulated kind of their preliminary recommendations, which they’ve done, and so this is in part to respond to those recommendations,” Cowell said.
Many pitched their own ideas which ranged from parks and recreation to affordable housing and many things in-between. Cowell said 20% of the money is budgeted for projects that need immediate attention while the remainder is slated to make people, businesses and the community stronger for the future.
Some speakers supported the panel’s ideas for a northwest neighborhood hub and an affordable housing program.
“This has a real possibility of transforming segments of our community for the long term and so folks’ involvement in it is critical,” Cowell said.
The group will meet again Wednesday to finalize the proposal and the city said there may be even more money coming down the pipeline from the state level.
The final recommendation will be made to the council on Sept. 20.