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Date: 2/8/2022
WESTHAMPTON – The Select Board opened their Jan. 31 meeting with a public hearing and discussion to go over possible benefactors in town from American Rescue Act (ARPA) Funds.
The hearing to determine and prioritize appropriate and most beneficial uses for ARPA funding is the first step in deciding how to divvy the $489,000 Westhampton will receive by 2024. Select Board Chair Phillip Dowling said half of the $489,000 is already in the town’s account with the remaining coming later this year.
Dowling said the town is focused on four main categories – public health and economic impacts, premium pay for essential workers, revenue loss due to the pandemic, and investments in infrastructure – for the funds to be used for. These four broad categories were selected by the state so the ARPA funds could assist in COVID-19 impacted areas of communities.
The Select Board then showed a spreadsheet of prioritized projects this money will go toward, as well as other possible recipients that qualify for ARPA funds. After the top priority listed items, other options were listed on a priority scale of two to four just as a figure to manage the possible projects the money could be used toward. Dowling did make clear this was just the very beginning of this process and that nothing was final coming out of this discussion.
The first priority listed project was $120,000 for Public Safety Complex overruns. This request, strongly recommended from the Public Safety Complex Building Committee, would offset the increased costs to the project due to delays, increased costs of materials and other factors directly tied to COVID-19 and the supply chain disruption.
In order to get the numbers for this request on the project, Dowling explained that $36,000 of ARPA funds have already been committed for design and engineering services for the second floor of the Public Safety Complex in order to establish what remaining costs would be needed on the overall project.
Another priority listed item from the board was $12,000 to help fund the Westhampton Food Bank for the next year. The town has been using money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to support communities following the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are committed in principle to funding the food pantry,” said Dowling. “That’s been going on with CARES money and something we would like to continue.”
In a letter of request to the Select Board from the Food Bank they explain that with the ongoing pandemic, there has been an increase in usage of the food bank.
“Because of this, it is vital that we make sure our newly established food bank has all of the resources to meet the needs within our town and surrounding community,” said the Westhampton Food Bank in their request.
When going further down their initial list of possible projects to put ARPA funds toward, the Select Board also discussed the purchase of a new transportation van for seniors, as well as a new police cruiser. Dowling says both would be purchased with ARPA money and that the police cruiser would be coming in the calendar year as they have waited three years past the normal turnover of a cruiser.
Another item listed was the new water well filters for $7,500. This money would go toward a grant program to allow for funding of well filtration and remediation in case of contaminations from perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or other contaminants.
When opened for discussion with those in attendance of the meeting, there were a few questions regarding some of the projects already discussed. Resident Tad Weiss said the idea of a transportation van for seniors was an interesting idea and asked the board if they had considered the funding for the long-term financial implications of having a town trasnporation service after ARPA funds are used as it would be something that would be here to stay.
“It might take more study to find out the amount of usage it would get us and the best structure for it,” Dowling said. “I don’t think its undoable.”
A resident in person for the meeting mentioned to the board that she believed the Council on Aging does a have a transportation fund, but it is a very limited service where one person takes calls and figures out the rides. She added that due to this, the town needs to find a new transportation service for seniors and that accessible transportation in Westhampton was critical to keep it growing.
Select Board member Teri Anderson responded by acknowledging the board has been in discussions about this type of project.
“We talked the need for public transportation in Westhampton and it’s going to be looked at and discussed for potential plans in the Master Plan,” Anderson said.
Scott Johndrow of the Elementary School Committee made requests for two projects not listed on the Select Board’s initial spreadsheet and were both focused on improvements for the school. The first request was for an estimated $8,000 for a water quality issue that is currently being faced.
“We have had lead in our drinking water, it’s above state action, and DPA action level. It needs to be corrected,” Johndrow said. “This is due to older fixtures in the building that need to be replaced.”
Johndrow also said the school would be looking for ARPA funds in upgrading the broadband internet of the building that has better access points and faster computers. Doug Finn, administrative assistant to the Select Board, responded to this request asking if this was an accurate cost evaluation, as he felt it should be much higher than the $20,000 estimate from Johndrow.
“These prices seem awfully low. In the computer world, three computers can be around $12,000,” Finn said. “And the work for plumbing? We need harder numbers, it seems extremely low.”
Dowling added that the point right now it to have a dollar amount ready in any request to get a ballpark idea of budgeting funds. The conversation concluded with the Select Board requesting more information in this specific request.
Resident Barbara Page spoke to the board and requested additional funding be used toward essential workers, including school cafeteria workers who she said needed to be supported as well. She also called for ARPA funds to go to some sort of mental health effort to address the needs in schools for students and families struggling to find that sort of support.
The public hearing closed with Dowling thanking everyone for their input and acknowledging again this was the first step in the process of distributing ARPA funds in the community. He also mentioned the Select Board would be participating in a workshop put on by the state municipal association to discuss ARPA funds and uses the day following this meeting. Conversations will continue on the use of ARPA funds.