New London ― The city recently committed the last of its $26.2 million in federal pandemic relief funding, though there’s still time to make modifications ahead of the end-of-the-year deadline, officials said Thursday.
The City Council on June 17 approved using $1.3 million worth of its COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay for a series of affordable housing grants and buy emergency vehicles.
Those earmarks essentially used up the city’s ARPA funding, which was received in two equal portions of $13.1 million in 2021 and 2022, said Finance Director David McBride. But not all the money has been spent.
The city has approved but not yet paid for $2 million in projects. For instance, $1 million set aside to help fund a new park at Briggs Brook is still unspent.
“That’s because the bulk of the work for that has not yet been done,” McBride said. “And money from the approved projects or programs, the ones we have not actually paid for, could be transferred for other uses, though it’s not likely to involve large amounts.”
Another $3.6 million in ARPA money is deemed committed to the point where purchase orders have been received, but money has not yet been sent to pay the bills.
“We have purchase orders for the security cameras going up in the city now and are all set to pay those orders, but haven’t done so yet,” McBride said.
Connecticut municipalities have until Dec. 31 of this year to allocate the remainder of their ARPA funding and until the end of 2026 to spend the money.
The council’s latest round of ARPA approvals included a total of $625,000 divided up among three non-profit low-income housing advocacy groups: $193,000 to the Eastern Connecticut Housing Opportunities agency; $291,000 for the Housing Opportunities to Promote Equity; and $140,000 to the Southeastern Community Land Trust.
The funding is expected to help the groups create 28 housing units through the rehabilitation of existing rental units, the building of new apartments or the construction of new buildings that can be sold to income-qualified families.
The council also approved the purchase of three new police cruisers for $186,500 and a $44,450 fire department vehicle for inspection and emergency response purposes.
Over the past few years, city officials have funneled its ARPA money toward a wide array of uses, from human and social service projects ― including food, housing and education programming ― to recreation-related improvements, municipal infrastructure upgrades and holiday decorations.
Mayor Michael Passero said his staff from the start took a disciplined approach to ARPA spending that avoided hiring new employees or adding projects that would require continuous funding after the federal money dried up.
“Our essential goal was to chip away at those projects on our capital improvement wish list, to get a jump on things like new ambulances and firetrucks. Doing that saves taxpayers money for years down the road.”
Passero called the purchase of the former B.P. Learned Mission on Shaw Street as “the greatest thing we did with ARPA funding,” with the Briggs Brook Park project a close runner-up.
“Buying B.P. gave us the ability to double the number of preschool openings,” he said. “And when else would we ever have an extra $1 million on hand to create a park for those Crystal Avenue and State Pier Road neighborhoods that have been overlooked and neglected for decades?”
j.penney@theday.com
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