ATHOL – At its Feb. 15 meeting, Athol’s Selectboard voted to use American Rescue Plan Act money to fund four items deemed crucial by an advisory panel formed to determine the best use of those federal funds. The act was passed by Congress on a strict party line vote in March 2021 to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on states and municipalities.
Town Manager Shaun Suhoski prefaced the board’s discussion by noting that “the advisory team included two selectmen, the Finance Committee chair, and the finance team of professionals here at Town Hall.
“What I think is unique, madam Chair,” Suhoski continued, “is that the actual recommendations encompass the priorities directly from the (ARPA) legislation of public safety, public infrastructure, affordable housing, and public health. So, I think this will give us a good framework.”
Suhoski then added that town Treasurer Patrick McIntyre had determined the town may be able to use some of the remainder of the town’s ARPA funds to pay for “grant administration assistance.”
Selectboard Chair Rebecca Bialecki, who served on the advisory panel, told the board, “The projects that the team would like to recommend for the Selectboard’s approval out of those ARPA dollars include four areas.”
At the top of the list, said Bialecki, “is an upgrade to the public safety communications infrastructure and radio system, at a cost of approximately $1.57 million. The project entails comprehensive replacement of the 911 and radio repeater systems, together with all portable and mobile unit radios for fire, ambulance, and police. The need has become more dire since the issue was identified during a prior regionalization study in ‘15 and ‘16.”
Bialecki said the need to upgrade the town’s communications system comes as no surprise.
“This is one of those upgrades we knew was going to need to happen back when the decision was made for Athol not to go with Gardner to dispatch jointly,” she said. “It’s time to pay the piper for this one, and we’re really fortunate that we have ARPA money — federal dollars — coming to town to pay for this, if the board accepts that recommendation.”
Second on the list of recommendations is the replacement of some 2,300 linear feet of water main in Green and Kennebunk streets area. Bialecki described the existing system as “distressed, 1880s vintage, 12-inch, cast iron mains which are a key interconnection point for Athol’s water distribution system.”
She pegged the cost of the project at around $1.2 million.
“This is a really big water main,” she said. “The whole town would be in a painful, dire strait should anything happen to this, and we’re just floating by on a wing and prayer right now.”
The advisory committee also recommended using ARPA funds to support the housing redevelopment project at the former Ellen Bigelow and Riverbend schools. She said the amount is a match of approximately $7,500 per housing unit.
“It will leverage the project financing, exceeding over $20 million for the project’s completion toward the historically sensitive rehabilitation of two former schools, construction of a U-connector building, and 53 units of quality, affordable and senior housing.
“Four hundred thousand dollars would be our donation, or portion, of the project. And we’d benefit from an over $20 million project. But when the town invests in itself it shows much stronger competition for financing,” Bialecki said.
The final item on the advisory committee’s list is the purchase of COVID-19 rapid antigen home tests for $51,300.
“The funds,” Bialecki explained, “will have allowed Athol to partner with five North Central Mass communities to acquire home test kits for distribution throughout the community. To date, approximately 2,500 test kits, with two tests per kit, have been issued via Athol’s social service network and through the Board of Health.”
The total in recommended ARPA spending for the four items comes to just over $3.2 million. That will leave the town about $750,000 of the total of $3.5 million in ARPA funding it has received. Suhoski told the Athol Daily News that plans for spending that money must be made by the end of 2024, and that projects utilizing those funds must be completed by late 2026.
The board’s vote to support the projects recommended by the advisory panel was unanimous.