Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

Grand Gateway Economic Development Association (GGEDA) presents a contract on American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) to the Washington County Commissioner.

GGEDA's Ed Crone says there is no problem with any county spending ARPA funds, however, giving monies out is where problems lie. He says GGEDA has put together two structures on how to give the money to non-profits and other government entities, making them sub-recipients.

Crone says one of these contracts was for the Community Development Block Grant Program where they acquire equipment and contract building. He says they have a set of procedures that was identifiable by the federal government and adopted by the State of Oklahoma.

The other part is for services such as nursing, mental health, financial assistance and more. Crone says they believe making groups sub-recipients of ARPA funds makes them more obligated to follow the process, too. He says it is a more sound system that will help Washington County defend they do down the road.

Craig, Mayes, Ottawa, and Rogers counties are on board with this system. Nowata County and Washington County are pending. Crone says they want to get all of the District Attorney's together so they can work on creating one contract for approval moving forward.

No action was taken by the Washington County Commissioners this week as draft documents were presented by GGEDA.