A joint meeting of the Trumbull Town Council and Board of Finance took place Sept. 1 in the Trumbull High School auditorium. The meeting was to discuss how to use the remaining funds from the town’s funding allocation under the American Rescue Plan Act.
Contributed photoTRUMBULL — Putting a synthetic athletic field at Indian Ledge Park, repairing a town pool and upgrading body cameras for the police are among the projects vying for roughly $5 million of funds allocated to the town through the American Rescue Plan Act.
The Trumbull Town Council and Board of Finance met together for roughly three hours Sept. 1 to listen to and ask questions about presentations from leaders of various town departments, who all spoke about projects that they wanted to see the money spent on.
“We have a unique opportunity in front of us to support important community projects and programs with this funding that we would not ordinarily be able to do,” First Selectman Vicki Tesoro said in an opening presentation to the Town Council and Board of Finance.
Trumbull was allocated a total of roughly $10.5 million in ARPA funding from the federal government, which state, local and tribal governments are supposed to use to support their response to and recovery from the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The town received the money in two allocations, in May 2021 and the second in May 2022. So far, just over $5 million in ARPA funds have been spent, and another $5.4 million remains.
Tesoro said in her presentation that ARPA funds must be assigned to certain projects no later than Dec. 31, 2024 and they must be used by Dec. 31, 2026.
Town Council chair Ashley Gaudiano reminded those gathered that the total costs of the projects being proposed at the meeting well exceeded the amount of money that the town has available, so not everything could be funded.
One of the biggest projects discussed was the installation of a multi-purpose synthetic surface athletic field at Indian Ledge Park. The project, estimated to cost roughly $2.2 million, is badly needed, as the town’s natural fields are often at the mercy of weather conditions, said Dmitri Paris, Trumbull Parks and Recreation superintendent.
“In spring, many users (of the fields) are incapable of getting games in, due to wet weather or (other reasons),” he said, adding that “We have thousands of users within the Town of Trumbull that would benefit from another synthetic field.”
Paris also told the meeting that serious repairs are needed to the pool at Tashua Knolls, and was requesting about $850,000 to put toward that project.
Another major project discussed at the joint meeting was upgrading the Trumbull Police Department’s body cameras, which Trumbull Police Chief Michael Lombardo estimated would cost roughly $100,000.
He said the cameras are required by law, and many of the ones the department has now have failed, running out of batteries in the middle of a shift. Lombardo said the model of camera the town is using also is expected to be phased out soon.
“I assume when it’s phased out, there’s going to be a lot of difficulty getting repairs, parts — everything,” he said.
One thing that wasn’t on the police department’s list was a way to increase its staffing, which is an issue the department has struggled with. Board of Finance member Paul Timpanelli asked why this wasn’t addressed.
“Is there nothing we can do with these funds to address this as a critical funding?” he said.
Lombardo said he didn’t think the ARPA funds could directly be used to hire more staff, which Tesoro confirmed. However, she said police staffing was a concern for her too.
“It’s an issue not just in Trumbull,” she said. “It’s an issue everywhere.”
She also said that the ARPA funding can be used to replace public sector revenue lost during the pandemic, and that that might be a possible way for the police department to address its recruitment and retention issues.
Thursday’s meeting was the first of many to discuss how the money will be disbursed, and consisted mostly of department heads discussing their ideas and answering questions from council and board members. There was no public comment. The public will be able to comment at the next meeting, scheduled to take place Oct. 27.
Tesoro said in her presentation that the town plans to launch an online form that town residents and business owners could use to submit their own ideas for how the money should be used. The the form would be available through the town web site from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
Tesoro emphasized that the list of potential ARPA projects presented at the joint meeting was preliminary, and formal recommendations won’t be made until some time down the line.
“It is my hope that we can make these decisions in a non-political manner, working together to do what is best for our town,” she said.