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Springfield Officials Will Seek Proposals From The Public For Spending COVID Recovery Funds

Springfield City Hall at night
Paul Tuthill
/
WAMC
Springfield city officials will solicit public input on spending the money the city receives from the American Rescue Plan Act.

City councilors plan listening sessions in the fall.

City officials in Springfield, Massachusetts plan to solicit public input on how to spend tens of millions of dollars in COVID recovery funds.

Springfield City Councilors are planning community listening sessions in September and October to hear proposals for spending the city’s share of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.

City Councilor Trayce Whitfield, chair of the Finance Committee, said the first public hearing, which will be held remotely, is tentatively scheduled for September 22nd.

“The community is looking forward to giving their input, so I am looking forward to the listening sessions,” Whitfield said.

The city administration will participate in the listening sessions, said Chief Administrative and Finance Officer T.J. Plante.

“I don’t think it is healthy for the government to spend $93 million without getting input from the Council, the residents and the business community,” Plante said.

Springfield is receiving between $94 million and $127 million in ARPA funds.

So far, $12 million has been applied to this year’s municipal budget to make up for lost revenue.

Plante told Councilors the federal funds will also be used for one-time bonuses ranging up to $5,000 for city employees who had to work last year in situations that exposed them to the coronavirus.

“If you are front-facing, you had a lot more exposure, you were in every day, you could get up to a maximum of $5,000,” said Plante. City employees who spent most of the pandemic working remotely would receive a lower amount.

“The hope is the DPW, the police, and the fire (departments) are going to get the max, if not close to the max,” Plante said.

The city recently announced it planned to use almost $3 million of the COVID recovery funds to purchase three vacant commercial buildings near the MGM casino complex so the city can control how the properties are redeveloped.

Whitfield said she was blindsided by the announcement and said the administration had promised to keep Councilors “in the loop” about spending the federal windfall.

“We’re the front line, so the constituents come to us and they’re asking us how this happened, and we don’t know,” Whitfield said.

Thomas Moore, an attorney for the city, who was recently appointed by Mayor Domenic Sarno to head a new department that will oversee spending of the ARPA funds to ensure compliance with the federal regulations, said the Council will have a key role in the future use of the money.

“These are good problems to have,” Moore said. “We have this pool of money. We are going to do a lot of good with it. Very exciting. Very exciting.”

The city administration is planning to use a formal process known as request for proposals (RFP) to spend the COVID recovery money, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. It said the RFP categories are job creation/economic development, capital projects, assistance for businesses, non-profits, seniors, neighborhoods, and housing.

The mayor’s communications office also released a copy of a letter Sarno sent to each of the city’s neighborhood councils soliciting input on spending the federal funds.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.