The town is currently mulling ideas for where to spend the remainder of the roughly $5.3 million in American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds it received last year. The town has appointed the Ad Hoc ARPA Funding Committee, which has been meeting each Thursday for the past month to finalize a proposal for the Board of Selectmen.

“The town has already spent some of the money that will help with some of the operational issues we faced last summer with some of the immediate issues related to COVID,” First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons said. “And then the town has made a recommendation about a number of capital projects we would like funded by ARPA funds, and then there is still approximately $2 million left that the ad hoc committee will decide on how to utilize that money.

“I know one area they want to do is create some sort of grant program for community use, for public use that they will be discussing what that program would look like. Nonprofits, for example who were so affected by COVID. They were impacted by the inability to really fund raise during the pandemic, so that is one area we are looking at. Also helping local businesses impacted by COVID is another area to look at,” Lyons continued. “Those are the types of things that I need some recommendations on how to manage through that grant program. I think it will be important as we work through that process to include the public in that, and to have a public hearing at some point and get feedback from the public on how they want this money spent, how they think it would be best spent. So, I think there will be some more community outreach coming soon.”

Selectman Bruce Wilson said that in his view the problem is that there are too many choices as where to apply these funds and paring down what projects are eligible to receive funding will be a complex process.

“I don’t have any pet projects on my wish list per say. What I really want to see is that money is distributed to it’s best and highest use,” Wilson said. “While we originally thought it was a lot of money we are finding that there are a lot of projects that we can apply it to. In fact, we have more projects than we have ARP[A] funds, so it’s really going to be a matter of identifying those high-impact projects that are in the spirit in the intention of the money and benefit everybody in Madison.”

“There’s a whole list of capital projects [including] any outdoor spaces heavily used during COVID,” Lyons noted. “One example that we have is a plan to make improvements to all the bathroom facilities at all the beaches. There are a lot of Beach & Rec programs to consider. Also, another one about improving the air quality at Town Hall. We have an ancient HVAC system at Town Hall and those are the types of things that are possible with these funds. How the benefits residents is that these things would normally be funded out of the capital program, which would normally be funded by taxpayer dollars.”

The Ad Hoc ARP Funding Committee meets virtually on Thursdays at 5 p.m. Visit www.madisonct.org for details.