Arnold Council is getting on board with Export Mayor Joe Zaccagini’s proposal for how Westmoreland County could best allocate $105 million in covid relief funds.

Zaccagini recently proposed distributing the money equally among the county’s 65 municipalities.

Arnold Councilman George Hawdon said the city also will suggest the county do that, either evenly or by a formula based on population.

If equally distributed, Arnold would get about $1.6 million, Hawdon said. If divided on a per capita basis, at $300 per person, it would get a little under $1.5 million.

That much money would have a huge impact on Arnold, Hawdon said.

“It’s a big, diverse county. What works in Arnold would not work in Delmont, it won’t work in Ligonier,” he said. “It makes the commissioners’ job a little easier. If they were to try to do this on a countywide project, you know one part of the county would not be happy with it.

“There’s a lot of constituencies here, a lot of municipalities.”

Hawdon said Arnold could use the money to pay down a $2 million loan it took out for sewage separation work; to support its fire departments, which lost close to $100,000 each from covid hampering fundraising efforts; and to pay for tearing down blighted and abandoned buildings.

Arnold would hold hearings to find out how residents would want the money to be spent, Hawdon said. He believes demolitions would be the most wanted.

Arnold has more than 100 abandoned and dilapidated houses.

“That is probably our most obvious and pressing problem,” he said. “Using those funds to address that would go a long way to putting us back on the road to recovery.”

Hawdon said Arnold will contact county commissioners directly about the idea, and he will attend a public hearing commissioners are holding Oct. 28 at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood.

A survey asking county residents to select their top priorities for using the money is available online at co.westmoreland.pa.us/ARPAsurvey. The choices are public health, negative economic impact, services to disproportionately impacted communities and infrastructure.

“They are looking for input right now. They are going to weigh the suggestions that they get,” Hawdon said. “This is probably one of the best ways to get local input, to give the money directly to local governments and allow us to disperse it.”

Westmoreland commissioners previously said they don’t expect a spending plan to be released until early next year.

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