The historic Conimicut Shoal Lighthouse at the mouth of the Providence River is far from being the shining beacon it once was, but Warwick Mayor Frank J. Picozzi is hoping the American Rescue Plan Act can, well, come to the rescue.
Ravaged by storms, waves and the fragility of its age, the 138-year-old, sparkplug-shaped lighthouse has continued to deteriorate, even after Warwick acquired the landmark nearly two decades ago. Requests for federal funding over the years have failed to come to fruition.
A photo of a tree growing out of the building even became fodder for debate between mayoral candidates in 2018, a symbol of inaction with regard to the preservation of the historic structure, according to one of the contenders. Its once pearly white exterior is plagued by rust, the building riddled with chipped paint and covered in vegetation.
Now Picozzi is planning to take a slice of the $39.4 million that the city is getting through the American Rescue Plan Act to finally fix up what has long been considered a source of community pride. The price tag could be as much as $1 million.
“It means a lot to the city,” said Picozzi, who took office last year. “It means a lot to the state. It’s an icon.”
The lighthouse is also one item on a growing list of projects that Rhode Island municipalities are proposing now that they’re due to receive a combined $536.8 million from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
Local officials are happy about the windfall but are finding the process of identifying the right places to spend the money to be a balancing act of satisfying longstanding needs and less-essential wants.
“An analogy I’ll give for this is if you get an unexpected tax return, you can either go out and buy a beautiful big-screen TV or change the furnace that’s not running very well,” said Picozzi, who is proposing sewer and water infrastructure improvements along with the lighthouse renovation.
Unlike at the state level, where leaders have $1 billion and have so far allocated $119 million for statewide programs to aid small businesses and social services, many early proposals for cities and towns have focused on projects with a decidedly local flavor.
In Johnston, the mayor is making the case for constructing a new public safety complex. In Pawtucket, there’s a proposal to convert a former medical office into affordable housing. And in Woonsocket, a plan to build a synthetic ice rink has been met with some opposition in a city where many are dealing with poverty.
In some cases, the infrastructure proposals have been virtual. Municipalities such as Barrington and West Warwick have set aside thousands of dollars for upgrades to their town websites and cybersecurity. In other cases, officials are making plans to use some of the ARPA funds to cover budget shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or are paying bonuses to essential public employees during the pandemic.
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NOT QUITE BEAMING: The city of Warwick has been unable to afford repairs for the 138-year-old Conimicut Shoal Lighthouse in the nearly two decades since it took ownership of the structure. / COURTESY CITY OF WARWICK[/caption]
Most municipal leaders are in no rush to spend. Indeed, the vast majority of the federal funds has not been divvied up, in part because cities and towns have until December 2024 to allocate the money and two more years to spend it.
Instead, some municipalities are using the time to turn to their inhabitants for help in deciding where to spend the money, either calling public meetings to collect comments or conducting community polls and surveys.
The final rules for how the money could be used were only released by the U.S. Treasury Department in early January.
Allowable spending includes: money for responding to public health needs or to cover public revenue losses because of the pandemic; premium pay for front-line workers; investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure; and any government services, limited to either a standard $10 million or up to the amount of tax revenue lost as a result of the virus (that can be documented through 2023).
Now that the rules are set, the spending will pick up speed, says Martin Brown, program manager for the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C.
“There was definitely some hesitancy for cities to get too into the weeds on planning,” Brown said. “There are still lots of unplanned dollars out there. In the next couple months, we’ll see a lot of activity as cities make full, comprehensive plans.”
RINK FIGHT
Among communities nationwide that have already allocated the relief funds, Brown said, many have so far been “putting out immediate fires,” directing money to tackle big-impact, one-off “shovel-ready projects” that they’ve otherwise been unable to address within their annual budgets.
The Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund is providing $350 billion to state, local and tribal governments across the country, including $45.6 billion to “metropolitan cities” and $19.5 billion to smaller communities.
While for the most part, Brown said, the ARPA funds are being allocated wisely by cities and towns, which are undertaking “robust community engagement” and applying a “rigorous equity framework” to determine priorities, there have been some examples of projects that probably are not deserving of pandemic relief funding.
Brown points to the affluent city of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., which is planning to use $2 million of its $2.9 million slice of ARPA money to help finance the construction of a 115-acre, 18-hole golf course.
“There’s going to be some examples of projects that maybe are not the highest and best use,” Brown said. “Generally, that’s not the trend we’re observing.”
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SLATED FOR DEMOLITION: Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt says the city will use $3 million of its $36.4 million allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funds to demolish a defunct water treatment plant on Manville Road next to the Blackstone River Bikeway. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
One project in Rhode Island that did generate some backlash recently is a $250,000 allocation for a synthetic ice rink in Woonsocket, which received $36.4 million in ARPA funding.
The faux-ice-rink plan drew protests in November from an activist group called Rebuild Woonsocket and criticism from city residents who wanted the money deployed to help the homeless and invested in affordable housing.
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt isn’t backing away from the rink plan or other ARPA allocations that received criticism, including $53,000 in improvements to the City Council chambers and $70,000 toward fixing ornamental streetlights. Baldelli-Hunt says those are only a small part of the ARPA spending plan her city devised after doing an online survey to solicit public input last year, which generated 154 responses.
“There’s a difference between the doers and the talkers,” Baldelli-Hunt said of the critics. “They were just flapping their jaws. We’re accomplishing things. Through the research we’ve done, we learned that that rink being synthetic, for the most part, you could use it throughout the year. This allows for residents to get out, exercise, try a new sport, socialize and be with their friends. You hear repeatedly that there isn’t enough for children to do.”
She says the city is conducting a second survey to better determine the community’s needs and wants, but the larger projects she and the City Council have already approved include $541,000 to repaint fire hydrants that are aging and contain toxic lead, $665,000 for new energy efficient LED streetlights and $4 million to replace water meters throughout the city.
Additionally, $3 million will be dedicated to the demolition costs of a defunct water treatment plant located next to the Blackstone River Bikeway.
Baldelli-Hunt says the city doesn’t have a plan on what it will do with the site on Manville Road, but she suggested keeping it as green space or the potential home of an information center since it abuts the bike path and the Blackstone River.
“Those are things that benefit everyone,” she said, adding without the injection of ARPA funding, these projects would have to wait. “Those aren’t sexy things, but those are things that are critical to good infrastructure and they’re important to ratepayers.”
Meanwhile, Baldelli-Hunt rules out investing ARPA funds in affordable housing, claiming Woonsocket has already gone above its obligations for government-subsidized apartments, but she noted that the City Council ended up authorizing spending $70,000 to reserve 10 rooms for homeless people at a local inn for the first three months of the year. Baldelli-Hunt also says she hopes to dedicate some of the local ARPA funding to assist city residents with homeownership.
THE SURVEYS SAY…
Pawtucket, another former mill city along the Blackstone River, is taking a different tack.
City officials have allocated $550,000 of its $58.3 million ARPA allotment to purchase a 15,500-square-foot former medical building at 160 Beechwood Ave., and a 1,000-square-foot former group home at 305 Owen Ave., with plans to build 12 units of affordable housing. Another $285,000 is going toward purchasing a 2,400-square-foot home at 575 Fountain St. for two more units of affordable housing.
Pawtucket is also committed to establishing a housing/homelessness liaison position through the city’s housing authority, which will be funded by $300,000 in ARPA funding for three years.
For another $750,000, the city is establishing a job training program, in partnership with the New England Institute of Technology, which will also span three years, according to a spokesperson for Mayor Donald R. Grebien.
The investments in affordable housing and job training – the only ARPA spending plans made by the city thus far – were guided by the results of an online survey offered in multiple languages last year, with just under 1,000 participants, said Emily Rizzo, Grebien’s spokesperson. Another online survey was launched in late January.
“Our biggest priority is trying to understand what the community needs are,” Rizzo said. “We noticed that a lot of importance was being placed on housing issues.”
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TAKING THE FIELD: North Providence Mayor Charles A. Lombardi is aiming to use a portion of the town’s $9.7 million allocation in American Rescue Plan Act funds to transform the town-owned Coletti Farm into a multiuse sports complex. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
In North Providence, Mayor Charles A. Lombardi said he is planning a community meeting soon to solicit input on how to use the ARPA funds. Lombardi said he will make final recommendations that will go before the Town Council, similar to the approval process in many of the 39 communities throughout the state.
“We all need to get the pulse of the taxpayers,” said Lombardi, who is also president of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns. “There’s a difference of needs throughout the state. Some of the outlying communities are not fully sewered. Some need affordable housing. But everyone is elated and excited to have this opportunity.”
Lombardi said he thinks the best use of North Providence’s $9.7 million allocation is for road construction and the development of two vacant properties owned by the town, including transforming the 4-acre Coletti Farm near Route 146 that it purchased in 2019 into a multiuse field for football, soccer and lacrosse, at an estimated cost of $1.5 million. The development of a public sports complex is not something the town could afford without the ARPA funds, Lombardi says.
“It’s a significant amount of money and will make a big difference for us,” Lombardi said.
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CASHING IN:
Every city and town in Rhode Island received an
allotment of federal aid, based on population size,
from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund,
which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
Above are the top 10 recipients across the state.
SOURCE R.I. GENERAL TREASURER’S OFFICE[/caption]
‘SHOT IN THE ARM’
Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena says none of his town’s $8.8 million in funds have been allocated yet, but he wants to use the federal funding to construct a new public safety complex for town firefighters and police, behind the current Johnston Fire Department headquarters. That structure was built in 1967.
“That would take up most of the funding. And I’d have to borrow more,” Polisena said. “I think it’d be a good shot in the arm.”
Decisions on how to spend Providence’s $166.3 million ARPA allotment – the largest of any Rhode Island municipality – have added to tensions between Mayor Jorge O. Elorza and City Council President John J. Igliozzi.
Elorza says his plan is to use $28.1 million to support affordable housing and homelessness initiatives, including $17 million provided to the Providence Redevelopment Agency to acquire and renovate properties; $28 million to plug holes in the city’s next two annual budgets; $15 million on racial equity initiatives, including $10 million for reparations; $12.5 million for city services and infrastructure; $12 million for sustainability initiatives; $5.3 million for economic development; and $7.7 million for arts, tourism and hospitality.
The remaining funds will go toward supporting existing projects, including spending $14 million on the ongoing Kennedy Plaza redesign project.
Igliozzi, meanwhile, has pushed back, focusing at least some criticism on the allocation for arts, tourism and hospitality, saying more money should go to beef up elderly and community services instead of “parties,” as he put it.
In Central Falls, Mayor Maria Rivera is not satisfied with the city’s $5.9 million ARPA allocation, noting that the apportionments were based on population size, not how badly a community needs pandemic relief. Central Falls was one of the cities hardest hit by COVID-19 in terms of public health, economic damage and impact on public education.
“Some of our state’s wealthiest towns are receiving nearly twice the rescue funding of Central Falls,” Rivera said. “I’m urging our state to help fix that and recognize the critical resources needed in Central Falls to recover.”
Still, Rivera is encouraging residents to email her with suggestions on spending the money. Rivera says $332,000 has already been allocated to the city’s general fund to prop up its budget, $7,000 has gone to local youth sports organizations, and $25,000 has gone to a firm to help the city comply with federal rules governing the use of ARPA funds. Other priorities will include affordable housing, social services and “everywhere in between,” Rivera says.
Back in Warwick, Picozzi says that in addition to the lighthouse renovation, he’s going to ask the City Council to do community outreach to figure out how to spend $1.8 million of the ARPA funds on park and playground improvements.
Picozzi plans to allocate $10 million for water and sewer infrastructure improvements, with at least $3 million of that needed to fix an important feeder line that goes under Route 37 and Interstate 95, which has been out of use for several years, forcing the city to rely on a bypass.
The rest of the funding will be divided up by himself and the City Council during the budget process later this year, the mayor says.
“A lot of things we’re going to do aren’t going to be fun things. But they’ll affect the future of Warwick for years to come,” he said. “I’m trying to be more deliberate. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
