by Joan Eliyesil ·
Friday, October 18, 2024
With a Dec. 31 deadline looming for towns and cities to obligate the American Rescue Plan Act funds they received in 2021, the Select Board voted unanimously at its Oct. 15 meeting to approve using most of the town’s remaining funds to buy a pickup truck for the Department of Public Works director and to pay for final design work on the Ayer Road project.
The town received $1.9 million of ARPA funds in 2021 and has spent all but $145,290 of it. Major portions of the fund were spent on the senior center renovation when bids came in almost $400,000 over budget, and on the design of the Devens water connection project. The remaining funds must be assigned to a specific purpose by the end of this year, but recipients have until the end of 2026 to spend them.
Town Administrator Dan Nason asked to use $78,000 to purchase a new pickup truck with a plow for the DPW director. He said the director’s vehicle is currently a Dodge Charger sedan, which was given to the DPW by the Police Department. That vehicle has no space for the equipment needed for everyday tasks and no plowing capability. Purchasing the pickup truck was recommended by the Capital Planning and Investment Committee at its Oct. 10 meeting.
The firm designing the Ayer Road renovation, TEC, needs an additional $52,500 to make some final design changes to a culvert. Those two draws will lower the ARPA fund balance to $14,790. Nason said he would like to spend that money on some new laptops for Town Hall and a few other departments. In addition, he proposed spending about $1,000 to frame the two marble tablets that hang on the wall on the second floor of Town Hall honoring the residents who served in the Civil War.
He told the board he will return with quotes for the new technology and the frames at its next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 6. The meeting would normally have been held on Tuesday, Nov. 5, Election Day, but the board agreed to move the meeting to Wednesday.