{"id":41074,"date":"2022-10-20T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=41074"},"modified":"2022-10-20T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T10:00:00","slug":"use-of-arpa-funds-and-decision-process-debated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2022\/10\/20\/use-of-arpa-funds-and-decision-process-debated\/","title":{"rendered":"Use of ARPA funds and decision process debated"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland <\/b>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

PAXTON \u2014 A lively discussion ensued as the Select Board and the ARPA advisory committee met last week with four residents on the process and decisions on what to fund with the $1.4 million in federal funds.<\/p>\n

Discussions included how the advisory committee had been formed, the decisions that were made and concerns about the specific projects chosen for funding under the federal program.<\/p>\n

That included using a majority of the funds for purchase of a fire truck, which the residents said they agreed was a good thing.<\/p>\n

But they disagreed on using the funds for that expenditure rather than other uses. The use of funds for that truck potentially freed up options for using funds that would have been raised for the truck, or reduced the tax bills.<\/p>\n

However, the debt exclusion option would have added to tax bills to fund the truck but allowed ARPA funds to be available for other projects.<\/p>\n

Mark Love said he, Neil Bagdis, Jeff Kent and Jeremy Richard served on various town committees but were not representing those boards.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us are here in that official capacity,\u201d Love said. \u201cWe\u2019re here as private citizens. We\u2019re hearing information, rumors, disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love said that \u201cone of the bigger questions that is out there is who\u2019s on the committee,\u201d including who selected them and how they got appointed.<\/p>\n

The Select Board had appointed the advisory committee, which reviewed potential projects and made recommendations to the Select Board, which ultimately chose which projects were funded using the ARPA money.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody on the committee had a boss,\u201d Love said, adding the composition could have been structured differently so no one had their boss on the committee.<\/p>\n

Kent also noted that the committee met during morning hours and not evening hours, when, he said, more people could have attended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t guarantee we\u2019re going to get a quorum of the committee when it is made up of a quorum of people who are in town during the day,\u201d Select Board Chairman Julia Pingitore said.<\/p>\n

Love said concerns had been raised about how members were chosen for the advisory committee.<\/p>\n

Among the committees suggestions was the funding of fire tuck purchase using a substantial portion of the ARPA funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate that you have a difference of opinion on the decision on the fire truck,\u201d Pingitore said, \u201cbut the decision was made by the Board of Selectmen at the time. The decision has been made, the contract has been signed. There\u2019s no going backwards on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love said, \u201cif you don\u2019t learn from the past, you\u2019re going to make the same mistakes in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI disagree that it was a mistake,\u201d Pingitore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in favor the fire truck,\u201d Love said of the committees. \u201cYou can be in favor of the fire truck and disagree with how the method to fund it was selected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think the $750,000 could have been put to better use,\u201d Love said, from tree work to roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to touch as many areas as we can with the ARPA money,\u201d Pingitore said. Not having to fund the fire truck directly from taxes results in thousands of dollars in interest savings, close to $200,000, she said.<\/p>\n

The savings could be $51.45 per taxpayer each of 10 years for a house with a $350,000 value, Town Administrator Heather Munroe said.<\/p>\n

Pingitore said the issue was, \u201cHow do you take $1.4 million and use it the best way you can?\u201d She cited projects and said, \u201cwe did a lot of great stuff with this money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Select Board took the fire truck off the warrant so the taxpayers wouldn\u2019t have to pay for it,\u201d Pingitore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to bring a message,\u201d Love said, \u201cThey\u2019re coming to us, and we\u2019re coming to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pingitore gaveled Love to stop talking after one point of discussion, as the time limit was nearing.<\/p>\n

She asked Love to move on to the recommendations.<\/p>\n

Love said they wanted to determine if there could be a grant to help subsidize the truck and if there is, that the money be returned to the ARPA fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding the ARPA committee, that it be determined conclusively whether a Select Board member can be on the committee,\u201d Love added.<\/p>\n

He said no member of the Select Board should serve on the committee, members of the community should be added and meetings should be held in the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re raising the question, not making a statement,\u201d Love said.<\/p>\n

Kent said he felt the Capital Improvements Planning Committee bylaw was violated by the composition of the ARPA committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe optics to me are stunning,\u201d he said. \u201cI come tonight not to rehash that, but to set a path forward so that we can regain that trust and confidence in our public officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discussion lasted for just over an hour, the majority of the Oct. 11 meeting.<\/p>\n

Halloween <\/b>The Select Board voted Halloween hours of 5 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 31.<\/p>\n

Concerns were expressed about the 5 p.m. start because of traffic, but it was noted youngsters would likely be accompanied by adults.<\/p>\n

Other seasonal events include the Paxton Lions Halloween Party at Wentworth Field, behind Paxton Center School, that same day, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Paxton Center School Trunk or Treat is slated to be held at the school Oct. 23 from 5 to 7 p.m., with registration and a fee required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PAXTON \u2014 A lively discussion ensued as the Select Board and the ARPA advisory committee met last week with four residents on the process and decisions on what to fund with the $1.4 million in federal funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}