SPANISH FORT – Federal stimulus funding could help pay for improvements in Spanish Fort, including a planned new fire station, city officials said.
Mayor Mike McMillan told City Council members at a work session on Monday, March 15 that the city’s share of funding under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress should be about $1.7 million.
“Basically we could use it for a fire station, I believe,” McMillan said. “You could use it for acquisition for parks and recreation and things like that.”
McMillan said any funding plans would be approved by the City Council after discussions with Spanish Fort officials.
“Any kind of grant will have to be approved by this council. The council's going to have to vote on doing this first of all and I can't ask you to vote on something that I'm not sure they're going to reimburse us for,” McMillan said.
“One of the things that I thought about, if it's allowed is perhaps using all or some of this money to build the fire station that we talked about. That would relieve our General Fund,” he added.
City Clerk Rebecca Gaines said the Spanish Fort has received about $353,000 in reimbursements under the CARES Act for expenses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said some payments are still outstanding, such as reimbursements for turnout gear for firefighters.
