Pittsfield received more than $40 million in federal pandemic relief money through the almost $2 trillion bill President Joe Biden signed in March 2021. Facing this month’s deadline from the U.S. Treasury Department, the city has officially allocated the entire sum.
“So, we've had some city projects completed by the end of September, one being the water meter installations for income qualifying households. The total investment of $195,000 served 113 low-income households to help them save on their water expenses. We also completed the Cleveland Water Treatment Plant upgrades, $1.2 million," said ARPA manager Gina Armstrong. “In progress right now, we have several projects. The health department is working on building up their vaccination capacity, that project will end in December, this month. Fire station upgrades are continuing. Those include upgrades to four different stations. Also, [the] Springside Park rehabilitation project was completed in, I think it was the end of October, and there was a ribbon cutting in early November. The Taconic High School track replacement project is well on its way and expected to be completed, I think, later this month. Also in progress, the several upgrades for our library and carpeting and flooring replacement, as well as repaving of the parking lots. And we're also wrapping up several HVAC control projects to four of our school buildings and two other city departments.”
Those projects total $2.4 million.
Work is also starting on two new projects accounting for $1.3 million.
“One is the Old Town Hall HVAC design and installation project," Armstrong continued. "That is expected to create space for the relocation of some of the Pittsfield Police Department operations. We have a bid process going on right now for the actual installation of the HVAC. The second project is the Pontoosuc Lake Park upgrades. This project will include ecological improvements to restore the wetland areas and also mitigate the shoreline bank erosion. It will improve handicap accessibility throughout the park, and it will also create a new shorefront promenade walkway connecting the park area to appear over the water."
At Tuesday’s meeting, Armstrong then turned to ARPA-funded projects being undertaken by local nonprofits, for which Pittsfield allocated 37 grants totaling around $9.2 million.
“One of these grants was awarded to Habitat for Humanity to enhance assistance to residents who were really struggling following the pandemic," she said. "And this is designed to expand the existing program to support pandemic recovery for three years, and it addresses a whole host of community and household needs and barriers. To date, through the navigator program, they have served 2,093 households, a total of 3,281 residents with a broad scope of services, including connection to medical resources, housing and employment supports, critical home repairs, SNAP and WIC benefits, health insurance, food delivery, translation services, financial education and literacy and legal issues are some of those supports most often offered through the navigator program.”
You can find a link to Pittsfield’s index of its ARPA spending here. Money from the law must be spent by the end of 2026.
