By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
Mayor Nancy R. Rossi has released a comprehensive plan outlining how the city will spend about $29 million in federal coronavirus relief funding.
Rossi presented the ARPA Community Investment Plan to the City Council on March 14.
The nine-page spending plan requires the council’s review and approval.
In October 2021, Rossi launched an online submission form seeking residents’ ideas for spending the American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The ARPA plan includes $3.5 million for the long-planned arts center at 304 Center St., $3.07 million for fire department aid, $3 million for stormwater management, $2.4 million for police personnel retention, $2 million for infrastructure paving and improvements and $1.65 million for municipal building improvements.
It also includes $1 million for a recycling and reuse center, $1 million for open space preservation, $1 million for small-business aid, $680,000 for public health outreach, $585,000 for broadband access and $500,000 for traffic and boardwalk monitoring cameras.
See the full ARPA Community Investment Plan at https://www.cityofwesthaven.com/DocumentCenter/View/4241/ARPA-Community-Investment-Plan-PDF.
In late January, Rossi established a nine-member committee to oversee West Haven’s allocation of ARPA funding.
The mayoral-appointed ARPA Committee is led by Chairman Kenneth Carney, Vice Chairman Michael P. Last and Secretary Dwight Knowles. The other members are Christopher Barstein, Neil C. Cavallaro, Iris Diaz, Kenneth Ferris, Gary M. Perdo and Rohan Smith.
The committee meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 5:45 p.m. in the Harriet C. North Community Room on the second floor of City Hall.
Carney is the chairman of the West Haven High School Building Committee and the West Haven Building Oversight Committee; Last is the city treasurer and a member of the board of directors of the West Haven Community House; and Knowles is the clerk of the high school’s Building Committee.
Barstein is the executive director of Benchmark Senior Living and was a hospitality industry professional and educator for more than 35 years; Cavallaro is the city’s superintendent of schools; and Diaz is the chairwoman of the Board of Fire Commissioners of the City of West Haven Fire Department Allingtown and was the vice chair of the city’s Charter Revision Commission.
Ferris is a former two-term city treasurer and was a member of the city’s Inland Wetlands Watercourse Agency; Perdo is a member of the high school’s Building Committee and the Washington School Building Committee; and Smith is an accountant at the West Haven VA Medical Center and was a member of the Charter Revision Commission.