Making sure the $174 million in American Rescue Plan money coming to the valley is spent legally is no easy task.

Trumbull Commissioners say they want to make sure they are doing it by the book. They say most of their $38 milliom will be used on things like water and sewer projects.

But those ARP funds must be spent in the parameters set forth by the Treasury department.

That's why Trumbull county commissioners are hiring outside legal counsel to make sure any future project paid for with those funds are in complete compliance.
If they weren't the county would be on the hook to pay it all back.

"We want to make sure of the validity of those projects. We want to make sure they are legal and make sure the county isn't going to incur a finding, an audit finding down the road where we have to come up with general fund because we spent the money incorrectly," said Commissioner, Mauro Cantalamessa.

"I want to make sure we have an attorney where that is their niche. Prior to looking at attorneys the county has just been relying on the auditor's office and they made a couple of recommendations that were not compliant," according to Commissioner, Niki Frenchko.

In Mahoning county, Audrey Tillis, Director of Office of Management & Budget tells 21 News they plan to run any future spending through the prosecutor's office.

Anything they question will be sent to the FEDERAL office of Management and Budget for clarification.

If cities or counties want to hire attorneys to double check their validity, the cost of those attorney fees CAN come out of those allocated ARP funds.