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Date: 9/29/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During the Northampton City Council’s Sept. 22 meeting, the council received a presentation from Mayor David Narkewicz about spending American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and approved a borrowing of over $1 million for a new fire ladder truck.
To start his presentation, Narkewicz said the city would be receiving nearly $22 million in ARPA relief funds over the course of 2021 and 2022.
“The American Rescue Plan Act was a far reaching COVID recovery measure proposed by the Biden-Harris administration. President [Joe] Biden signed it into law back on March 11 and it is a $1.9 trillion measure providing direct financial relief to Americans, businesses, states, counties and municipalities. The city of Northampton will receive approximately $22 million in these relief funds over the next two years,” he said.
Narkewicz explained that one use of the funds could be replenishing revenue lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said is about $6.2 million.
“We think about during COVID things like parking, hotels, motels, meals and many of the key local revenues we depend on to pay for services were heavily impacted by COVID. We have preliminarily estimated that would be about $6.2 million in terms of those categories of revenue that were impacted because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Some of the other uses of the funding include water, sewer and broadband infrastructure, premium pay for essential workers and aiding small businesses, households and economic recovery.
Narkewicz said it is important to be careful with spending the funds and one of the focuses should be on replenishing revenues lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Like any grant funds that will run out, we want to be careful about how we apply them to the budget. Replenishing revenue declines during the pandemic should be given high priority top rebuild financial flexibility and restore fiscal resiliency. That goes back to allowing cities to replenish revenues that were lost during the pandemic,” he said.
One suggestion Narkewicz made about the funding was potentially using it for water and sewer projects, especially with the Coca Cola plant closing in 2023.
“I think about for example the issues that lie ahead in terms of Coca Cola’s departure and the loss of water and sewer revenue. These funds provide an opportunity to buffer that particularly if we have a new source of funding for water and sewer projects that we might otherwise have to finance or pay for directly,” he said.
With his tenure as mayor ending on Dec. 31, Narkewicz said one of the primary goals before using the funding is working with the incoming mayor’s team to decide on the best ways to spend it.
“I felt very much the decisions that are going to be made about this funding over the next two to four years should be made by the next administration. So, my goal has been to put in place internal infrastructure and making sure we are filling out the paperwork so when the new administration comes in, they will be in the best position possible,” he said.
To gauge public interest on what to do with the ARPA funds, Narkewicz said the city will be releasing a survey on Oct. 1.
During the meeting’s break for the financial orders, the council received a request from Fire Chief Jon Davine to borrow $1.09 million for the purchase of a new fire ladder truck.
Davine said the current ladder truck is constantly out of service and is nearly 20 years old.
“Our current ladder is a 2003 so it is almost 20 years old now, we have run into some significant repair costs, and we just got bad news again yesterday. With the current one we are looking at between $65,000 to $80,000 because we need to update the entire aerial control system, which is quite a bit higher than a few weeks ago,” he said. “The mechanic has been doing a great job, but it seems every time we use it, we have to call him, it just is not safe anymore.”
One of the issues in Northampton is the lower bridges, and Davine said to address that, Pierce Manufacturing designed a ladder truck low enough to go under the bridges.
“We are leaning towards purchasing this new Pierce ladder. One of the issues in Northampton is the low bridges and our ladder needs to be 11 feet or less. The ladder they proposed to us comes under 11 feet but does not have as many features, but we feel like we can get away with a true ladder truck and would give us more compartment space for more equipment, including more ground ladders,” he said.
Davine said the department has been relying on its mutual aid partners as backup if the current truck goes out of commission on a call.
“Right now, we are relying on Hadley, Holyoke and Easthampton. For any call if it is a reported fire, possible fire or smoke in the building, we are calling them automatically. Whichever community is closer we will call, and they send a ladder right away in case ours goes out,” he said.
He added the earliest the new truck would come in is 18 months.
The council unanimously approved the borrowing of $1.09 million for the purchase of a new fire ladder truck.