Holliston’s ARPA Steering Group Gets Down to Business
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), signed into law earlier this year provides aid to State and Local governments to accelerate the recovery from the effects of the pandemic. The funding is targeted toward initiatives in the following areas:
• Support urgent COVID-19 response efforts to continue to decrease spread of the virus and bring the pandemic under control
• Replace lost public sector revenue to strengthen support for vital public services and help retain jobs
• Support immediate economic stabilization for households and businesses
• Address systemic public health and economic challenges that have contributed to the inequal impact of the pandemic
Holliston has formed an ARPA Steering Group to guide the Select Board as the Board votes to allocate the nearly $4.4 Million Holliston will receive in the coming months / years from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
The Steering Group is a working group with representation from the key Town Boards, Committee, and Departments (Select, Finance Committee, School Committee / Department, and Public Safety). The working group is not a formal committee and as such is not required to follow the State’s Open Meeting Law. In an effort to be completely transparent as to how Holliston’s funds will be used, all meetings of the group are posted on the Town meeting calendar and accessible via Zoom.
Steering Group Voting Members:
- Select Board – Mr. John Cronin
- Finance Committee – Dr. Ken Szadja
- School Committee – Mrs. Cynthia Listewnik
- School Department – Dr. Susan Kustka, Superintendent (with Mr. Keith Buday, Asst. Superintendent, Finance & Operations; non-voting)
- Public Safety – Fire Chief Michael Cassidy
- Town Administrator – Mr. Travis Ahern
Below are the members of the Group at their first meeting held earlier this week.
Town Administrator Ahern began the meeting by sharing (below) with the group a listing of seventeen projects submitted from various organizations by the ‘soft deadline’ of August 2, 2021. There will future opportunities to apply for ARPA funds from Holliston’s share.
Following the process outlined above, the Group began its review / decision-making (the first diamond).
The color coding is intended to facilitate the group’s work during each of their sessions. During this past meeting, the group focused on the time-sensitive items highlighted in green.
First up was Dr. Kustka who presented the request for ARPA funds to provide full day kindergarten to all eligible students at NO cost to parents beginning with the coming school year. Below are some of the slides Dr. Kustka used to support the request.
Following Dr. Kustka’s presentation, Mrs. Listewnik added that the ARPA funds offered an opportunity for Holliston to “be bold.”
The Steering Group unanimously recommended that the request be forwarded to the Select Board for action at its next meeting (August 16th). [As shown in the flow chart.]
Mr. Ahern presented the Viewpoint project that has been made available to the Town. The Viewpoint website states its purpose to be “The Viewpoint team’s goal is to provide innovative and unique content featuring the world’s most influential organizations and individuals.” Mr. Quaid and his team would produce a high-quality video which would promote Holliston’s character, business, recreation, etc. The one-time cost to the Town would be about $27,500. The video would be distributed by Mr. Quaid’s organization, potentially reaching a very broad audience. The time-sensitivity element of this project is that Mr. Quaid has solicited many other towns and we don’t want to be lost is crowd by engaging too late.
The Steering Group unanimously recommended that the request be forwarded to the Select Board for action at its next meeting (August 16th).
ARPA funds can also be used for Capital projects. In that category, Mr. Ahern asked AP Associates Engineering to compile a prioritized list of infrastructure work. Below is the list:
No action was taken regarding these capital projects.
A Town e-mail account has been set up for receive questions, comments, and ideas that the Steering Group might use -> ARPAsteering@holliston.k12.ma.us
The next meeting of the Steering Group will be on Wednesday, August 18th at noon. An informal agenda and Zoom link will be posted on the Town meeting calendar ->https://www.townofholliston.us/arpa-steering-group/events/117811
