After months of listening sessions to hear how the public wants the city of Youngstown to spend its nearly $83-million in American Rescue Plan money, the city is getting ready to start writing checks.

So now that they've heard from you, how will the city decide how to spend your money so you get the most out of it?

Senior citizens in Youngstown made their wish list known to Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown regarding how they want to see the city spend its millions in federal ARP money in the last official public hearing Thursday.

Ideas include assisting with food insecurity, those with disabilities and sidewalk improvement among a wide range of proposals. 

Mayor Tito Brown said these public hearings were all part of a data collecting process, a process done by a non-profit called the Economic Action Group, which already has a $65-thousand contract with the city to help with "planning and economic development."

Now, the organization is responsible for presenting data in spending covid funds.

"They've been collecting the data as we've been going along, so the surveys... the proposals... they've been categorizing them," Mayor Brown said, "We know percentage of how many people said we need youth [crime prevention]....how many for park and rec... so that's what we're going to do a report on."

From there, Brown said they'll develop the categories based on the priority the data presents and make sure they fit federal guidelines.

City Council is then in charge of appropriating the funds. 

"A higher category might say crime and youth prevention, but then we've got to figure out... what's that really mean?" he said, "What kind of service are you going to provide? And then you make recommendations to the council for the majority of those issues they put out there and then the council has to decide how to appropriate those funds."

Mayor Brown expects this data report to be complete by the end of this year and a portion of the money spent in the first quarter of 20-22.

You can still send in your ideas in a public survey on the city's website until October 22nd.