The Seymour City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Monday night that sets a plan in place to distribute the city’s $4.16 million in American Rescue Plan funds.

President Joe Biden signed the plan into law in March 2021 with the intention of providing funding for coronavirus relief to every municipality in the country.

ARP funds can only be used to respond to the negative economic impact of COVID-19, recover lost revenue from government services or to invest in sewer, infrastructure or capital projects, according to the ordinance.

A distribution model is in the ordinance that establishes a percentage of ARP funding that five different areas in the city will receive: Infrastructure, 60%; nonprofits, 20%; government services, 8%; small businesses, 7%; and tourism, 5%.

So far, only $200,000 of the ARP money has been distributed after Child Care Network was able to secure funding from the council in April to go toward a child care center for the county. The center will be located in a building at 414 N. Chestnut St. in downtown Seymour.

Reported losses must have been between Jan. 1, 2020, and March 3, 2021, and the first deadline to apply for the funds is Sept. 1 of this year. A second deadline to apply will be Oct. 1.

The city’s finance committee consists of councilmen Jerry Hackney, Seth Davidson and Dave Earley.

Hackney introduced the ordinance at the meeting and said the plan was brought to the council with a favorable recommendation.

The council passed the ordinance 7-0 on first reading. Then Hackney made a motion to suspend the voting rules to go ahead and take a vote to pass the ordinance on second reading, instead of voting on the second reading at the next city council meeting. The ordinance was passed 7-0 on the second reading.

Hackney said of the applications that the finance committee has received so far, around $800,000 in funding is being requested.

Requests can be emailed to the mayor’s office at [email protected] or dropped off or mailed to Mayor’s Office, Seymour City Hall, 301-309 N. Chestnut St., Seymour, IN 47274.

Financial data from 2019, 2020 and 2021 are required to apply, and requests must include the date of the request, who is requesting funds, the amount requested and a description of why the funds are being requested and what they will be used for.