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Date: 2/8/2022
SOUTH HADLEY – The deadline to apply for a piece of the town’s federal COVID-19 relief funding is quickly approaching.
With roughly $4.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money available, the town of South Hadley has been soliciting proposals from the community. The final day to apply is Feb. 15.
“This is the first time we have sought applications and this is really more like our first round of applications,” Town Administrator Lisa Wong explained. “We have three years to allocate all of the funding ... We’re likely not going to use it all at once.”
South Hadley was appropriated $5.2 million of the $350 billion made available to state and local governments for COVID-19-related recovery through ARPA, receiving the funding in installments of $922,391 in June 2021, $1,7 million in August 2021, and the final and largest payment of $2.6 million in 2022. The town already used a portion of the funding, including approximately $800,000 for remediation efforts at South Hadley High School after mold was detected two days before the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Smaller sums were also used for various COVID-19 response efforts, Wong noted.
Eligible applications must fall into one of 10 categories. COVID-19 mitigation and prevention, behavioral health care, public health and safety staff, premium pay for essential employees, assistance to households or populations economically impacted by COVID-19, small businesses and nonprofits, housing, education, revenue loss, and infrastructure.
“If I feel we are missing applications in key fields, I will conduct outreach to solicit more applications,” Wong said.
Citing possible examples of eligible funding uses, she pointed to mortgage and rental assistance programs that have been implemented in other communities. She also said the town has been seeking ideas from the South Hadley and Granby Chamber of Commerce and other business groups to determine how to effectively and efficiently address needs.
Wong also noted that some proposals may also utilize more than one funding source.
“The Judd Brook intercepter project, for example, is a project that needs to be done, but the $2.3 million required would eat up most of the money, so it would likely use some ARPA funding and some other programs,” she said.
Once collected, the applications will be presented in March and the Selectboard intends to post the proposals to garner public input. How the funding is awarded remains at the discretion of the Selectboard. “The Selectboard could piecemeal approve projects or endorse a plan,” Wong said.
The application is available on the Selectboard’s page at https://www.southhadley.org/218/Selectboard. For more information, contact Wong at selectboard@southhadleyma.gov.