by THP Admin ·
Friday, November 29, 2024
It’s a rare occasion when the town finds $100,000 to spend on almost anything it needs, but that’s what happened when the Devens water connection design engineers realized that police details needed for the duration of the project had been funded twice.
The project budget had always included funds to pay for the details, but at a July 2 Select Board meeting, Tim Bragan, Harvard’s previous town administrator, told the Select Board that money to pay for police details was not an eligible expense under the terms of the low-interest loan that is paying for the project. Bragan said the town would have to cover the police detail expense itself, and the board voted to allocate $100,000 of American Rescue Plan Act money to fund that expense.
At last week’s meeting of the Select Board, Town Administrator Dan Nason told the members that funding for the police details was part of the project budget, so the board needed to rescind its vote to fund the details with ARPA money. It is unclear why that expense will now be allowed under the terms of the loan; town officials did not respond to that question as of press time.
All the money the town received from ARPA must be obligated by the end of this year, so Nason came to the meeting prepared with a wish list of five items totaling $116,421. He asked for $35,000 to update the town website and $10,000 for security lighting with motion sensors outside Town Hall. He also requested $54,000 to purchase new water meters for the Devens water connection as well as about 100 meters to replace the existing ones in town, many of which, he said, are so old they are unreadable.
Nason said a new conference room is being created on the first floor of Town Hall, and he asked for $13,821 to furnish that room with a conference table and chairs, and to purchase two large-screen monitors and hybrid meeting technology for both the new conference room and the small meeting room upstairs. There is currently no capability to hold a virtual meeting or record a meeting in the small meeting room, and a few committees have returned to in-person meetings there.
Nason’s fifth request, $3,600 for holiday lights on the Common, was rejected by the board when member SusanMary Redinger said she had read the list of what towns could spend ARPA money on, and there was “no way” holiday lights qualified as a legitimate expense. Nason said he would find another way to finance those lights.
The board voted to pay for the other four requests, totaling $112,821, from ARPA funds. It is unclear where the remaining $12,821 will come from. Except for the duplicate police detail money, the town had no unobligated ARPA funds remaining. The board voted Nov. 6 to close out the remaining $14,000 of the town’s ARPA funds to pay for frames for the Civil War plaques in Town Hall and some new laptops and desktops for the land use boards, the Department of Public Works, the Fire Department, and the town administrator’s office. After voting to use ARPA money to fund the items on Nason’s list, the board moved on to other business and neglected to vote to rescind its July 2 vote approving $100,000 of ARPA funds for the police details. The Press asked Nason if that vote is still necessary, as well as where the additional $12,821 will come from. He had not yet responded as of press time.