A former town official says Milton might have to repay over $100K in federal dollars after required reports were not filed on time.
Former Milton Clerk-Treasurer Terry Craig says that State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds allotted to the Milton council through the American Rescue Plan Act in 2023 are subject to being recouped by the federal government.
The council was awarded a total of $101,076. Craig said that one project, a $30,000 police cruiser purchase, was initiated in 2023 and should have been filed in the 2024 report. As of January 2026, he believes the government does not have required information about any of the projects. Annual reports on the use of funds were due on March 31, 2024, and 2025, respectively.
According to documents from the Department of Treasury that Craig supplied to WWN, an Initial Notice of Recoupment 2025 was sent on Jan. 15, 2026, notifying that the Town of Milton had failed to respond to multiple notices of noncompliance. According to the form, without receiving the required reports, Treasury is unable to determine whether SLFRF award funds were used only to cover obligations incurred in the original request.
The document states that original notices were issued via email on May 1, 8 and 15 of 2024. A fourth notice in June 2024 detailed that submitting a report within a seven-day window would have resolved the noncompliance. However, a report was not submitted, resulting in three notices issued in May 2025 with a fourth on June 6.
According to the official notice, Milton council has until Jan. 30 to submit a reconsideration request for the funds or repay the award amount. Failure to act will result in a recoupment of the award amount. Craig, who departed his role in 2023, told WWN he doesn’t want the town to lose that money.
WWN reached out to current council members for comment. As of press time, the town’s attorney, Chris Armour, said the town was still working to understand the situation and declined to comment further until then.
Milton participated in Wayne County’s Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program, which helped identify priority projects for ARPA money expenditures. The HELP initiative provided some of the money Milton raised to improve Milton Community Park, helping the town receive a matching grant through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority’s CreatINg Places program.
The town also identified sidewalk replacements and a sewer upgrade as priorities. Wayne County pledged $133,000 of its ARPA money toward the two projects. In February 2024, Milton requested — and received — the county’s permission to use the $44,000 allocated for the sewer project to instead pay for emergency repairs to its major sewer pipe leading to Connersville.
The U.S. Department of Treasury provides a publicly-access website to track ARPA allocations and projects at wwn.to/arpatrack. The project tracker includes the amount allocated, the amount spent and the project’s completion status. Milton is listed on the site as receiving its $101,076 allocation, but individual projects are not listed because the town has not filed its required reports.
Overall, Wayne County and a dozen communities were allocated nearly $23 million in ARPA funds.
A version of this article appeared in the January 28 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.