The city of Troy is moving ahead with plans to spend its share of American Rescue Plan funds.
Mayor Patrick Madden says the Troy Now initiative has been key to gathering public input.
"We had an allocation of $42.8 million from the American Rescue Plan," said Madden. "And, though it's not completely unrestricted money, the allowed uses are pretty broad, but there is quite a bit of treasury regulation around it. And of course, we're trying to ensure that we're following all the rules, the rules run a couple of 100 pages. We are trying to hew as close as we can to that while achieving the objectives of the program. You know we recognized as soon as this award was announced that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it's definitely a one shot. And we were all committed, both the administration and the city council, to making sure that it was put to use in a way that would create sustainable and enduring change."
The Democrat says the projects funded will benefit future generations. Madden says last year, the city council allocated a portion of the funds to systems and processes that improve Troy's ability to offer services to its residents.
"Things like software and security upgrades, things like additional EMS services throughout the city," Madden said. "Our EMS services have been strained by COVID. And it does not seem that that pressure has abated in any way, we still have a great deal of demand for those services. So we've put some ARPA money into increasing capacity there. We also set aside blocks of funding in specific areas such as affordable housing, youth services, workforce development, daycare, food access, city parks, we knew that we wanted to put money in there. So we allocated a sum to those specific targeted areas.”
Madden says the city conducted extensive outreach in asking for community ideas and input. The response: 84 applications for over $61 million.
"So we created a task force which reviewed the applications and we made recommendations to the full city council and those recommendations were made last month, and the council acted on them earlier this month awarding I believe it was funding to 15 groups," said Madden.
Madden says he expects all projects will move expeditiously.
"So it included things like the farmers market, Lansingburgh Boys and Girls Club CEO, the Ark after school program, Oakwood Community Center, the public library, Tech Valley Center of Gravity, Lansingburgh pool, and then a few others as well," Madden said. "Those were what made it through the community review process. So at this stage, we know where the lion's share of the funding is going."
Funding has also been earmarked for the demolition of the long vacant Troy Housing Authority project known as the Taylor Apartments. Money has also been allocated toward the second phase of the South Troy industrial roadway, a project that will help divert heavy truck traffic away from the South Troy and South Central neighborhoods.
Madden says while some projects are ready to roll, others are still in the developmental stages.
"So if we look at for example, the Oakwood community center, they need to come back with a work plan," Madden said. "Obviously not everybody got everything they wanted, so they got less than they asked for anything. They will need to come back with a work plan, will need to coordinate with their architect or project manager. And so that one might take a little bit more time just because that organization requires a little bit more hand holding. Lansingburgh Boys & Girls Club, they may be able to move their facility improvements along at a quicker pace because they had already undertaken a needs assessment and developed a plan for how they would spend the next dollar that comes in the door. So it's, it's going to be all over the board, frankly. But we do have a timeframe with the federal funds. So this is not going to be something that stretches out for four or five years.”
Madden says the city is being transparent in reporting the allocations.
"We have posted on there, all of the community applications that we received, we posted on there the recommendations of the steering committee to the council, we posted on there the previous appropriations by the city council," said Madden. "And as more details develop, for example, as those as we develop the details of the blocked funding that I spoke of, they will go up there as well. People need to check in with that on a regular basis."
Here is the link to the Troy Now Initiative.
