By Dakota Antelman — Dakota@concordbridge.org
With a deadline fast approaching, town officials are revisiting some Covid relief allocations.
Concord received roughly $5.65 million in the 2022 fiscal year through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Intended to offset the impacts of the pandemic, the money must be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.
With a new round of local ARPA awards in October, Town Manager Kerry Lafleur said Concord has allocated all its relief money. But several previous allocations are not panning out, Lafleur told the Select Board — leaving officials with a small window to find new uses.
“We have some work to do,” Lafleur told the board at its October 21 meeting. “We’re on a short timetable.”
Cultural arts projects
Newly announced allocations for fiscal 2025 include $1 million to replace a failing culvert under Baker Avenue, $500,000 to expand affordable housing options, and $450,000 for road improvements at Main Street and Baker Avenue.
Lafleur outlined the 2025 projects and said she was not immediately questioning any of them.
Digging back through the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, though, she highlighted points of concern.
A $20,000 allocation for cultural arts projects in 2023 has gone unspent. Individual project costs are low, Lafleur said. And Economic Vitality Manager Mimi Graney has been “phenomenally successful” at getting other grants.
“The amount of money needed to move some of these items forward is pretty small, so it would take a lot to spend $20,000,” Lafleur said.
DEI initiatives
A $75,000 allocation for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives is also prompting concern as the town has spent only about $5,000.
Lafleur said the money was originally meant for consulting work, “but we’ve had a hard time getting going with consultants,” she said.
Short of hiring a staff member, Lafleur said she doesn’t know how the town would spend the rest of the money. Though she said she has reached out to other communities about the prospect of sharing a DEI staffer, Lafleur said that’s not likely.
“It’s not a good match,” she said.
EV charging
One other allocation would pay for fast electric vehicle chargers at Concord’s Walden Street public safety facility.
The Town of Concord has five electric vehicles. But with one Tesla and four Mustangs, Lafleur said the vehicles require different charging systems.
“Anybody who drives an electric vehicle [knows] you’re not supposed to do level 3 charging all of the time,” Lafleur added, referencing the fast-charging technology.
Lafleur also acknowledged concerns about the facility itself. “Long term, public safety is not going to be at that site,” she said. “That site is not big enough.”
With the police and fire departments likely moving out of their current homes, Lafleur said, “it doesn’t seem to make sense” to pay for electric vehicle chargers now.
Though she didn’t name a specific alternative, Lafleur said she thinks “there is probably a better electric project to dedicate this to.”
December deadline
Concord has already spent a large portion of its ARPA money on projects ranging from Covid-era personal protective equipment to a sidewalk plow for the public works department.
The rest is locked up in contracts and grants, meaning it won’t have to be returned to the federal government at year-end.
With concerns about some allocations, though, Lafleur said she expects to return to the Select Board in the coming weeks with “ideas for some adjustments.”
Board member Cameron McKennitt said the end of December is approaching “fairly quickly.” He asked if the town has options to allocate any leftover funding to a single project, such as road paving.
“It becomes a little bit of a catchall for your leftovers,” he said.
Lafleur said the option of a catchall allocation is on the table and pitched facilities expenditures as another candidate.
