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Date: 7/25/2023
AMHERST — Discussions on what the town should do with remaining money from the ARPA funding dominated the first half of the nearly four and a half hour Town Council meeting of July 17.
Picking up where they left off from the June 26 meeting, councilors heard from a collection of community members with their thoughts on where funding should be directed, in the second round of allotments.
The town received $11.9 million in ARPA funding in response to the coronavirus pandemic with $7 million directed or identified in the first round of distribution. $2.8 million was shifted to the second round of allocations, allowing for $4.9 million in funds available for round two.
Amherst Community Connections founder and Executive Director Hwei-Ling Greeney began the public comment portion of the meeting, calling for the distribution of ARPA money to agencies who did not initially receive funding.
“We were severely impacted by COVID-19, just prior to the pandemic our agency was funded by the CDBG funding for our work with the homeless and low income,” she said. “However, during the pandemic the town announced it will not fund any agency due to state funding.”
Questioning the equity issues in the CDBG system, Greeney told the council that the nonprofit’s workload increased during that period from 400 to 800 families that they were serving.
Vera Cage, a Longmeadow Drive resident also called for funding for those organizations who did not receive money in the first round of distributions.
“We really need to focus on the existing businesses and organizations that have been in our community, to lift them up,” Cage said. “I think that the first round I think we saw a lot of newer businesses being lured into our community and I think that’s great but I think at this particular juncture we really need to consider how we support the ones that have been left behind,” she added.
State Rep. Mindy Domb (D-Amherst) called into the meeting to offer suggestions for allocation of round two funding.
“My recommendations are based on the needs provided by the town to my office and those described to me by residents,” Domb said.
Domb identified upgrades and renovations to the water treatment plant as well as roads and sidewalks as projects for funding from the round two allotments.
“I would like to suggest that a significant amount of ARPA funding in round two be dedicated to these critical and expensive needs, as a result of recent weather events there may be other infrastructure needs that also increased in priority including dam repairs,” she said.
Domb acknowledged the town’s receipt of a no-interest loan for the water treatment plant project but suggested that ARPA funds offered a unique opportunity to cover those costs as the project had been described to her as, “critical to preserving the town’s water supply for the next hundred years.”
Domb also suggested other town needs identified for potential funding could be financed by alternative sources.
Community members also called on the town to consider funds for Black-owned businesses, Amherst Media, the proposed Town Youth Empowerment Center, the Senior Center and services that focus on low-income and affected persons.
Council members also offered their comments on ARPA expenditures to Town Manager Paul Bockelman for the second round of funding.
Councilor Shalini Bahl-Milne spoke toward funding youth empowerment and workforce housing while Councilor Dorothy Pam suggested funding for what she called two forgotten areas, the Senior Center and Black-owned businesses.
“I’m not going to say that anything was done wrong but I’m going to say yes, there was an appearance of impropriety and we don’t need to have that,” Pam said. Other council members agreed with Pam’s assessments.
Assistance for the downtown area and village centers and the potential option of direct payments to affected residents were also suggested during the meeting.
Councilor Michele Miller recommended the town manager create an advisory board to review and determine how the remaining funds should be allocated.
In acknowledging the comments from the community and councilors, Council President Lynn Greisemer stressed the importance of funds for roads and sidewalks while sharing concerns about the needs of the senior center and for the potential for an advisory committee.
“These are tough decisions. There’s more good ideas out there that we could ever have possible money for…let’s look at this as an opportunity to do this in a way that we have a renewed transparency for all of the money that we spend,” Greiesemer said.