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05/15/2024 02:15 PMNORTH HAVEN
All municipalities across the country are obligated to expend federally granted funds via the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) by the end of 2024. The entirety of North Haven’s ARPA pool totaling $7 million has been spent over the past two years, according to First Selectman Mike Freda, who reflected on how these funds have supported the town in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2022, North Haven has spent exactly $7,008,997.73 in ARPA funds under the banner of “Economic Vitality and Community Support,” according to town officials. Although North Haven is not classified as a “distressed municipality” and has received less funds than other towns and cities, Freda said that “we were grateful for what we were receiving,” with funds directed to the areas of parks and recreation, public safety, infrastructure, and technology. Monies appropriated were for the purposes of uplifting key services which those sectors of the town provide for citizens and town officials.
The First Selectman said he worked directly with the federal government to make sure that each of these items qualified for spending. This work was supported with an initial ARPA expenditure of $90,443 to hire a” federally endorsed consultant” from the accounting company BDO Global.
“They also helped us with the filings and helped us with some of the items that we presented to the federal government to ensure that they did qualify,” said Freda.
One of the most critical ARPA expenditures was $285,940 to pay for COVID-19 test kits which were given to residents, said Freda. Another critical move was using ARPA funds to balance the town’s budgets for fiscal years 2021 and 2022 in order to account for lost revenue, per advice from the federal government.
“Businesses were closing, and tax revenue declined across the country for the municipalities as a result,” said Freda. “In the fiscal year ending [in] 2023, we’ve [set] $1,670,000 as a revenue item to help balance that budget.”
The previous budget for fiscal year 2021-’22 saw the same process with a budget-balancing allocation of $1,170,000.
In addition to this, there were key allocations to parks and recreation in order to uplift services and town-owned assets in athletics and performing arts which are enjoyed by many in town. Approximately 41%, or $2,875,830.41, of the total ARPA funds were appropriated to improvement projects which would be examples of “projects that the public would see and that were important to various segments of our residents,” said Freda.
These projects included refurbishing the track and placing new lighting at Vanacore Field, installing ADA-compliant bleachers at town athletic facilities, and placing a safer playscape at Montowese Field. Funds were also used to place a new stage on the bandstand at the Town Green.
For infrastructure, $116,652.75 in ARPA funding was directed toward fixing flooding and drainage-related issues on Philip Place and Middletown Avenue.
Public safety saw allocations of $716,037.17 in ARPA funding which was mostly for upgrades to emergency vehicles, along with new body armor for police officers. Upgrades in Town Hall-based technology received a total of $86,861.1. Freda said equipment upgrades for both departments would have been purchased by the town through future budgets, but were purchased sooner through ARPA funding, rather than out of capital requests.
“In the age of breaches, municipalities sometimes are crippled through these breaches and IT attacks by scam artists,” Freda elaborated on the latter.
Freda summarized North Haven’s biggest priorities when it came to spending the ARPA funding on multiple areas in town.
“Summing it up, I tried to help the people both with the safety utilizing test kits, help parents and the people who have children to [participate in recreational activities], help citizens who like to walk on the track, help people in specific areas who had flooding, enhanced public safety and technology, and utilize the balance to help balance the budgets because of the revenue that was lost to this pandemic,” said Freda.