Mayor Sheehan announces first use of American Rescue Plan funding

The American Rescue Plan provides funding for cities and towns nationwide to help them recover from the pandemic, including in the city of Albany.

On Wednesday, Mayor Sheehan announced how her administration plans to start putting the money to work. Albany is getting $80.7 million dollars.

"We’re providing $2 for every hour that our frontline workers were working on the front line, putting themselves and their families at risk, and that’s our unionized workforce. We are also going to be providing raises to our non-unionized workforce to ensure we are thanking those and compensating those who continue to work when the rest of the country shut down," Mayor Sheehan said.

The mayor said it’s not yet clear what more may be coming with the pandemic, but they wanted to get this money out to frontline workers who have already been impacted.