MARS — Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act available to municipalities may be more difficult to access than previously believed.

Bonnie Forsythe, borough secretary-treasurer, told Mars council on Monday of the requirement for the borough to apply for the funds, something originally thought to be not required under the 2021 federal stimulus package.

While the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act required states to disburse funds to municipalities which applied, many had thought the Rescue Plan did not have that requirement. However, Forsythe said Mars and other municipalities must send in an application for those funds.

But there are challenges.

“I'm still in the middle of trying to get that application completed; everybody in the state's trying to do it,” Forsythe said, adding the systems were “bogged down” under the weight of Pennsylvania municipalities applying for funding.

The reason applications were thought to be unneeded is because, unlike CARES Act funds, which were intended to recompense municipalities for COVID-19-related expenses, American Rescue Plan monies have no such tie-down, being instead for expenses related to the pandemic.

Councilman Brad Price said he was under the belief that Rescue Plan funds had fewer restrictions placed upon them, “so that people would be more willing to take” them. He referenced municipalities in Butler County that either did not apply for 2020 stimulus money or received a paltry amount as an example of those unwilling to take them.

That's not the case, Forsythe told him. She said the 2021 stimulus is more restrictive than the prior year's counterpart, and that “they've been hammering that home,” utilizing the funds within certain restrictions.

Not all is gloomy. Forsythe said Mars is, in fact, eligible for more funding through the American Rescue Plan Act than they'd previously thought.

“Previously it was approximately $159,000 the borough would be eligible for, and now it's approximately $168,000, divided into two payments — one to happen this year, one to happen next year,” she said.