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With unanimous action last week in awarding nearly $92,000 to several county lake associations— the County Board zeroed out what remains of the American Recovery Program Act funding that had been dedicated to lake water quality.  

Chisago County got federal ARPA funding of $10.9 million.

The county commissioners identified areas where one time monies could be used and adopted a spending plan that prioritized those needs.  County lake associations were earmarked for $250,000.   

Other areas included completing deferred projects for public buildings,  equipping the emergency radio system, broadband enhancement aid and even local school district capital needs. 

The deadline to have all the multi-year federal aid spent is the end of 2025 and uses (contracts) need to be nailed down by the end of this year. ARPA monies not used must be returned to the federal government.

The county began distributing these proceeds in 2023 and appropriated $64,780 of $70,000 earmarked.  The leftover $5,000 was deposited into 2024 grants.  In 2024 the county awarded $93,471 and there was a rollover of about $1,300 unspent for 2025.

These lake association awards are reimbursement grants and needed to be officially organized to apply for these funds and a couple of the groups opted to stay out of the process this year.  

According to the recap of applications the county received, the Comfort Lake group isn’t applying for 2025. Comfort and Little Comfort qualify for only about 1.7 percent of the total allotted,  due to the areas of the bodies of water.  

And— small Pioneer Lake which only qualifies for 1.2 percent is also not pursuing funds. 

Rush Lake is the largest area of water at almost 2,000 littoral acres. 

County Commissioner Dan Dahlberg, from Rush City, has two normally self-funding associations in his district, the Rush Lakes and Goose Lake groups. He told the Board that he has heard gratitude expressed for opening up this ARPA money to groups on the north end.  

Goose Lake gets $2,618 and the Rush Lakes group is slated to get $27,167.

The Green Lake Association did not get the required DNR permits in a timely manner to treat aquatic invasive species in 2024 but is scheduled for $38,446 for 2025.

The Chisago-Lindstrom Lakes Assoc. is will get $19,075 in 2025.

Center Lakes is slated for $4,417.

The stated goal is to use the money to prevent introduction or limit the spread of aquatic invasive species.  

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