Pittsfield Has Allocated Almost All ARPA FundsBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
05:33AM / Thursday, February 15, 2024 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city has allocated $40.4 million of its $40.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and the rest must be committed by the end of the year.
More than $24 million of the funds went toward addressing the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes housing initiatives, assistance to small businesses, work on Site 9 in the William Stanley Business Park, a three-year marketing campaign, and funding to 37 nonprofit organizations.
"You'll see that we really focus in on those four areas to stabilize local government operations, households, small businesses, and economic sectors, particularly in local tourism and cultural industry," Special Project Manager Gina Armstrong told the City Council on Tuesday.
"It also positions communities on a path to economic recovery from the pandemic."
Mayor Peter Marchetti pointed to an agenda item from Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren requesting that the city reinstitute the quarterly ARPA status reports, explaining that his office never said it would discontinue them but he understands Warren's reasoning because one of the reports was missed in the last administration.
He said his office will be committed to continuing the updates.
"I think now more than ever is the important time because basically all the money has been allocated and it's now our job to be doing the due diligence and ensuring the money is being spent in the proper ways in the proper timeframe," he said.
"And we'll also be working with all of the organizations to ensure that that money will be spent before the deadline of June 30, 2026, and we will ensure if that money is not that it is reallocated to another cause to be able to maximize all the benefits."
Pittsfield received nearly $41 million in two allocations in 2020 and 2021 and it has supported around 70 different initiatives.
Some $5.3 million was allocated for public health, $3.5 million of which has been expanded for contact tracing, COVID-19 vaccination and testing, mental health and substance use resources, and several HVAC and ventilation system upgrades in city buildings.
Of the $6.5 million allocated for infrastructure, $6 million has been spent, a majority going toward upgrades at the water treatment facility.
Another $2.6 million was allocated for revenue replacement with $315,000 of it expended so far, and the remainder of the $40.4 million in allocated funds went to administration.
Armstrong highlighted the community partner profiles that are on the city website and social media pages. There are 13 published so far and the intent is to have a profile for all of the 37 community partners by the end of the year.
"They're so fantastic in highlighting the impactful work that has been underway," she said.
Warren doesn't agree with spending the funds on public relations, as he "doesn't think we need to spend money to tell the public where we are spending this money."
"We got this money because of a pandemic. A pandemic where people died, a pandemic where people got sick, a pandemic that brought this country to its knees," he said.
"The reason that communities got these monies is to put money back into the community to recover from this pandemic and those expenses."
Armstrong also highlighted the $510,000 marketing campaign that brought 70 media representatives and social influencers to the city over the last two years.
"We have involved experts from a national marketing firm and regional marketing consultants," she explained.
"This focuses on cultural and tourism sectors and this really targets the New York City and Boston areas to get the word out on all the wonderful assets here in Pittsfield."
This has resulted in 928 quotes published in 68 sources for a total of 124 articles, posts, satires, and reels.
Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi is not sure that this is money well spent, as her searches for the city don't come up with favorable results.
"When I search Pittsfield on social media or the most popular apps now, it's either our local agencies that come up the most or Pittsfielders with not very positive things to post where they are hashtagging," she said.
"And if I am being completely frank I have to dig really hard to find any of these positive influencer posts and when I get there, there are some from this year that have 300 likes and they go back to I think (2022,) a majority of them though are more like 30 likes and there is no unifying hashtag."
She asked if more influencers were coming and if there were guardrails that could be put on for the project.
Armstrong reported that there is one that will happen in the winter or the spring but no further funding is going toward the marketing firm.
"I hope we don't go down this road again. I don't know that it is useful," Lampiasi said. "But I understand why we did."
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