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American Rescue Plan Act

    ARPA FUNDS

    Provincetown’s Early Learning Center Wins Grant to Grow

    Child care and food security are two priorities for $5M in awards

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The Provincetown Schools will open a third infant-toddler room later this summer at its Early Learning Center — thanks, at least in part, to $362,801 in federal American Rescue Plan Act money being allocated now by Barnstable County officials.

    The funds supplement $25,000 from the finance committee’s reserve fund to retrofit the room and $100,000 from the Early Learning Center’s revolving fund.

    Last August, the Barnstable County Commissioners and Assembly of Delegates agreed to designate $5 million in ARPA funds for small- and medium-sized grants. Both nonprofit and for-profit organizations as well as non-county local government entities such as school districts were eligible to apply.

    After reviewing 122 letters of interest, county officials invited 40 groups to submit grant applications. The total funding requested by those who applied was $14 million. County officials ultimately split the $5 million available among 20 winners, with several organizations receiving part of what they requested.

    The grant to Provincetown’s Early Learning Center was the full amount the district had requested, according to the grant and school choice manager, Tessa Bry Taylor.

    Cape-wide, early education and child-care programs received the largest portion of the $5 million pot, at $1.1 million. That came as no surprise to Gerry Goyette, Provincetown’s school superintendent. “There is an abundant need for child care across the communities on the Cape,” he said.

    Currently, 20 children are enrolled in the center’s infant and toddler program, which serves children ages eight months to 36 months, and there is a substantial waiting list. “About 30 families are looking for immediate care, and that’s why we are opening a new room,” said Bry Taylor.

    In addition to covering the cost of some refurbishment of the early learning center space — better lighting, an upgrade to the heating and air conditioning systems, and a much-needed replacement of both the sub-base and surface of the playground behind its facility in the Veterans Memorial Community Center — the grant will help pay the salaries of one teacher in the infant and toddler program and assistant teachers in the preschool and pre-kindergarten programs for three- and four-year-olds.

    Programs at the center run from infant care through pre-kindergarten. The kindergarten, which was also located at the community center, is moving to the main school campus on Winslow Street this fall to make room for the expansion of the infant and toddler program.

    Most of the refurbishing of the early learning center should be done this summer. The playground work, however, will have to wait until early fall. “It’s very difficult to get contractors down to Provincetown in the middle of the summer,” said Bry Taylor. The playground structures won’t need to be moved while the work is done, so the job will probably be completed in one to two weeks.

    The early learning center serves families from all four towns on the Outer Cape, and children from even farther away are sometimes enrolled, generally because a parent works nearby. Children of Provincetown residents attend the programs free of charge. Eastham, Truro, and Wellfleet have voucher programs to offset tuition costs.

    “The vast majority of our families are utilizing a voucher as opposed to paying out of pocket,” Bry Taylor said. The voucher program, she said, “has been a lifesaver for many families who otherwise would absolutely not be able to afford child care or early learning.”

    Other ARPA allotments to support child care and early education programs went to the YMCA of Cape Cod, the Cape Cod Council of Churches, and Cape Cod Children’s Place.

    Grant award recipients fell into a handful of other categories: food security, public health, housing, community services, and broadband.

    The largest grant related to food security went to the Family Pantry of Cape Cod for its food program. It was awarded $300,000 to pay for supplies for distribution.

    “We serve between 600 and 625 families each week,” said Executive Director Christine Menard in an email. “That’s up 33 percent over last year.”

    The Family Pantry gets its food from the Boston Food Bank. It must pay for some of it, but the rest is provided through the Mass. Emergency Food Assistance Program and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Some of the produce it distributes comes from a garden at the pantry’s Harwich facility. “We grow about 5,000 pounds a season,” Menard said. That’s “nice but not enough to cover what we need.”

    The Family Pantry also runs a “Healthy Meals in Motion” mobile pantry, partnering with councils on aging in Brewster, Dennis, Chatham, Eastham, Orleans, and Provincetown. The mobile pantry also stops at the Provincetown school and Cape Cod Children’s Place in Eastham.

    The organization offers a satellite pantry at Cape Cod Community College for students, staff, and those at the child-care center.

    There is hunger on Cape Cod. “We have never seen this level of demand in the history of the pantry,” Menard said.

    HEALTH CARE

    Towns Get Money for a Mental Health Clinician and a Nurse

    $381K ARPA grant will also fund ‘asset mapping’ and monthly wellness clinics

    By

    A collaborative project among the four Outer Cape health depts. going by the name of “OC Wellness” has won $381,375 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding from Barnstable County.

    Five members of the Outer Cape public health community, after a presentation to Provincetown’s select board on April 24. Left to right: Dan Gates of AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod; Alex Nelson of Outer Cape Community Solutions; Emily Beebe, Truro’s health director; Lezli Rowell, Provincetown’s health director, and Bri Smith, of the Outer Cape Health Services community navigator program. (Photo by Paul Benson)

    The new title, Eastham Health Director Hillary Greenberg-Lemos said, is a way to publicize an ongoing regional effort to help as many Outer Cape residents as possible to access “wraparound care” — a term that includes not just direct medical care but also other supports for social, physical, and behavioral health.

    “We wanted a way to get people interested and reinvigorated about municipal programming, while also acknowledging that just because a program’s in Truro doesn’t mean you can’t go if you’re in Eastham,” Greenberg-Lemos said. “We want to break down that boundary.”

    This is the second-largest sum awarded in a $5-million round of county grants (see story on page A7).

    The most important budget item is two new direct-service providers on the Outer Cape: one registered nurse and one mental health clinician. These positions will technically report to the town of Eastham, which is the fiduciary sponsor for the project.

    The four health depts. are in the process of putting together a Request For Proposals to fill the two roles; they’ll function similarly to the Community Navigator program at Outer Cape Health Services, which takes referrals from both municipal agencies and nonprofits and can meet people at their homes to help coordinate care and services.

    “Hopefully, we’ll be able to eliminate an ambulance ride and provide services directly where people need them,” Greenberg-Lemos said. “We want these providers to be able to go out and meet patients where they need to be seen, whether that’s a space in the library or the community center or at their home.”

    The initial proposal had requested $500,000 and included a certified nursing assistant as part of a three-person “multidisciplinary support team.” But the health depts. scaled the staffing plan down to two positions once the funding decision was announced. The contracts for those positions can be funded under the ARPA grant for up to 18 months.

    The grant will also help hire a facilitator for “asset mapping” sessions, which coordinate programming and resources between the many municipal departments that play a role in the social determinants of health, including recreation, councils on aging, and libraries in all four towns.

    A third bucket of funding is earmarked for additional wellness clinics — an estimated two sessions per month on the Outer Cape for 12 months, as well as $1,250 per town for free transportation to the clinics.

    Greenberg-Lemos said that the four-town expansion of the popular Winter Wednesdays program, which was started by former Provincetown Health Director Morgan Clark in 2017 to combat off-season loneliness and isolation, had been an important first step toward regionalizing public health work.

    In October 2022, the directors signed an agreement with Outer Cape Community Solutions, formalizing a partnership. OCCS is a rural health network that connects health and human service providers across the four towns. It was first funded by a federal grant and now by the state Office of Rural Health. It’s led by a steering committee of the Barnstable County Dept. of Human Services, Helping Our Women, the Lower Cape Outreach Council, NAMI Cape & Islands, and Outer Cape Health Services.

    “The world of health and human services exists in the same world with these municipal departments,” said OCCS coordinator Alex Nelson. “My role is to bridge that gap and help build and strengthen relationships between these two groups.”

    In a presentation on April 24, Nelson told Provincetown’s select board that, since their agreement, “things are snowballing in a beautiful and exciting way.”

    “I’m really thrilled to have access to [Nelson’s] energy,” said Provincetown’s Lezli Rowell. “Our ordinary workloads in health offices are stiff.”

    On the Outer Cape, health directors are responsible for business and food service licensing and inspections, sewage and waste disposal, water quality monitoring, and housing regulations, among other things. In Truro and Wellfleet, the health agent is also the conservation agent.

    Nelson said she was “particularly excited” about the asset mapping component of the project, which will expand the OCCS regional coordination model from health care and human service agencies to town governments.

    “For rural communities, it’s all about relationships,” Nelson said. “By having conversations among all the different people who are providing face time and services in every community across the four towns, folks will be able to see what gaps are available, and then everyone will be able to do their job a little better,” she added.

    In the coming months, Nelson, the four health directors, and additional staff from the town of Eastham will be responsible for selecting the individuals or agencies to fill the two new clinical positions. Housing, which has posed a serious staff retention problem in the past few years, is not included in the proposal.

    RESCUE

    Housing Could Get $11.4M From County ARPA Pot

    Addressing homelessness, affordable housing, and the ‘missing middle’

    By

    BARNSTABLE — An advisory committee established to recommend best uses of the $41.4 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding sent to the county says the $11.4 million remaining in the pot should go to addressing housing needs in the region.

    The ARPA advisory committee’s recommendation, already approved by the Barnstable County Commission and now pending before the Assembly of Delegates, would allocate $3 million for sheltering and medical respite for the homeless, $6.9 million for affordable housing, and $1.5 million for workforce housing and the needs of “missing middle” wage earners who fall short of the income needed to be able to invest in a house on the Cape.

    Paul Niedzwiecki, chair of the ARPA advisory committee and CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, presented the committee’s findings to the Assembly at its Jan. 4 meeting.

    In all three categories, the money would be awarded through a process of requests for proposals administered by the county. Nonprofit organizations, businesses, and municipalities would all be eligible to apply.

    Sheltering the Homeless

    Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Niedzwiecki told the delegates, “the face of homelessness on the Cape has become a lot older.” Homeless people also increasingly have accompanying medical and behavioral health conditions, he said.

    Alisa Magnotta, executive director of the Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC), said that providing more space between beds to prevent a spread of the virus meant reducing capacity at the year-round St. Joseph’s House shelter in Hyannis from 50 to 45. That resulted in a scramble for other temporary housing, such as motel rooms.

    Catholic Social Services, the Duffy Health Center, and HAC worked together in new ways during the height of the pandemic and decided that making food, shelter, and medical and counseling services available at a single location would also work well going forward.

    The purchase and renovation of a new building will be the focus of an application the social service organizations intend to submit for up to $3 million from the homeless program allocation. Currently, the shelter is owned by HAC, Magnotta said, while Catholic Social Services rents and runs the shelter. Duffy provides medical services and hopes to start a medical respite program. Magnotta said the organizations plan to co-locate a homeless outreach team there for better collaboration.

    “We can be more efficient,” said Magnotta, and “get better results for this population and for the region.”

    Duffy Health Center CEO Heidi Nelson told the Assembly that her center offers medical care, mental health services, and substance use disorder programs to homeless people. Last year, she said, it served over 3,000 people. Duffy is also the lead agency in a winter motel stay program called In From the Streets. It housed 150 people last winter. “That’s three times the number we would normally be serving pre-Covid,” Nelson said.

    The state Dept. of Housing and Community Development provided significant financial support for that program and has committed to continued funding for the next 10 years. It would be run from the newly proposed shelter, Nelson said.

    Nelson is also planning a medical respite program for homeless people who are too sick to be on the street but not sick enough to remain in the hospital. It would help post-surgery patients, who represent a major challenge for discharge planners at Cape Cod Hospital. The cost to fund a five-bed pilot program would be about $500,000. Nelson is talking with state health and housing officials about creating an appropriate funding stream to support the respite program.

    In addition, Cape Cod Hospital is embarking on building a new tower on its property. The state has a program that could require the hospital to provide community benefits in exchange for hosting a major capital project. “We will certainly be at the table writing our proposals to be included,” Nelson said.

    The relationship between health and housing came to the fore in a recent needs assessment conducted by Cape Cod Healthcare, according to Niedzwiecki. He told the Assembly that a majority of respondents to its 2022 survey identified housing or homelessness as the top concern affecting community health.

    Construction Cost Gap

    The pandemic has wreaked havoc on construction plans across the nation, and the Cape is no exception. A priority for spending on affordable housing ensuring the survival of projects that have been going through lengthy permitting and funding processes and have during that time seen cost escalations that put them at risk, Niedzwiecki said.

    Assembly member Dan Gessen of Falmouth asked Niedzwiecki whether the advisory committee envisioned the money going to a single large project or multiple smaller ones.

    “There is a known quantity of affordable housing projects that are in the permitting process or under construction on the Cape, and the list is not extensive,” Niedzwiecki said. “Anecdotally, some of the funding gaps are $1.5 to $2 million, so the $6.9 million could fund three or four projects.”

    Following Niedziewcki’s presentation to the county commission last month, Commissioner Ron Bergstrom spoke against providing grant funding to projects approved under the state’s Chapter 40B housing law, saying “we are subsidizing private enterprise and their desire to gain a profit. I would hope we would be able to concentrate on projects that are all affordable or 90 percent affordable.”

    Niedzwiecki countered that the profits from 40B projects are capped. “It’s not an unlimited amount of profit for the private sector,” he said, “and frankly, 40B has produced more affordable housing in the state than any other state program ever.”

    The ‘Missing Middle’

    The third area for relief spending recommended by the advisory committee is redevelopment and modernization of existing housing and promoting zoning changes to allow for multifamily development and higher density in appropriate areas. The Association to Preserve Cape Cod has worked with HAC to identify the best areas for increasing housing density with the least detriment to the environment, Niedzwiecki said.

    Incentives for building accessory dwelling units or for homeowners to keep their homes affordable when sold (see related story on page one on a new deed-restriction strategy) would also be ways to address the needs of what Niedzwiecki called the “missing middle.”

    “You can make as much as $70,000 a year and qualify for housing assistance and still be $100,000 short of entering the market,” he said. “We are losing 1,000 families a year that make less than $100,000. That’s all workforce.”

    The seasonal workforce is threatened, too, Niedzwiecki said, by rising housing costs and changes in the ways people use their properties. Pre-Covid, he said, about 5,000 J-1 seasonal workers took jobs on the Cape, and many lived with host families. Since the pandemic, that host network has largely disappeared, he said.

    The number of J-1 visa holders — student workers here for the season — coming to the Cape has rebounded only to about 2,100, Niedzwiecki said. Now, sponsoring agencies are requiring employers that have J-1 workers to provide housing, he said, adding that if the lack of housing for seasonal workers is not addressed, it could leave a 3,000-person hole in the seasonal workforce.

    David Troutman, owner of the Scargo Cafe in Dennis, told the Assembly he was at the discussion “to provide a little bit of insight from the trenches about the urgency regarding housing.

    “Last year alone, I lost at least four people because they couldn’t afford to live here, so there’s no doubt there is a crisis,” Troutman said. “I don’t know if any of you ever tried recently to go out to dinner on a Monday or Tuesday, but the pickings are slim to none. It’s because of a lack of staff.”

    Lack of housing for workers isn’t just a problem for restaurant owners. Troutman said his wife is a school administrator in Barnstable where candidates end up turning down jobs because they can’t find a place to live.

    Troutman’s daughter is a registered nurse in Cape Cod Hospital’s emergency room. “She’s only been there a year, and she’s considered senior staff,” he said. The hospital, he said, is increasingly relying on traveling nurses to do jobs once held by local people.

    HOUSING

    County Gets $1.5 Million From ARPA to Fight Homelessness

    Most effective uses are debated as need outstrips funding

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Some extra money will be coming to Barnstable County from the American Rescue Plan Act to help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The $1,556,508 in federal funding is, however, no match for the need.

    More than 10,000 households here meet the government’s definition of “extremely low income,” and advocates say that Cape Cod has essentially no rental housing available.

    County leaders are working on a plan to spend the money according to federal guidelines while acknowledging that many more people need help than they are likely to be able to reach.

    The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a $1.9-trillion bill signed by President Biden early in 2021, directed huge amounts of money to state and local governments throughout the country, including $8.7 billion to Massachusetts, of which $41 million came to Barnstable County. Separate from that was a $5-billion allocation to the federal HOME program, which is the government’s largest low-income housing program, supervised by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

    The latter $5 billion was split among the 651 jurisdictions nationwide that administer HOME funding, which resulted in the $1,556,508 that Barnstable County will receive next year.

    Before that money can be released to the county, there is a mandatory public process: community engagement sessions, a needs assessment and gap analysis, a draft plan, a public hearing, and, finally, approval of the spending plan from the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. After multiple community engagement sessions this fall, the county and its outside consultants are nearly done with the draft plan, according to Renie Hammon, Barnstable County’s HOME program manager, with the public hearing likely to be held in late January.

    One complication is that there are many ways the money can be spent, and the draft plan tries to weigh the relative merits of all of them. Among the possible uses of the $1.5 million are the production of affordable rental housing, the provision of rental vouchers directly to tenants, funding for homelessness prevention services, and the development of new shelters.

    In addition to people who are currently homeless, the money may also benefit people who are deemed to be at risk of homelessness and people fleeing domestic violence. The “at risk” category is expansive — it includes anyone who makes less than half the area median income and lives in a motel, for example.

    As the Independent has reported, there are many people living in motels and campgrounds on the Outer Cape, including at the Truro Motor Inn, which is owned by David and Carolyn Delgizzi of Weston, who are embroiled in court proceedings over the substandard condition of the apartments and the property’s cesspools.

    People who work on homelessness and housing insecurity say that financial support for their clients would be welcome. But even if a voucher for rental housing comes, there is often no landlord with a vacant unit who will take the voucher.

    At a community engagement session in October, Jennifer Ferron, a community support navigator at Outer Cape Health Services who is based at Nauset Regional High School, told the county’s HOME administrators that she knew of only one motel that would accept money from an agency like hers. Ferron said she did not want to disrupt that relationship by naming the motel. But she did want to know how to get more vouchers.

    The county’s official homelessness count, called a Point-in-Time or PiT count, is an annual survey of homeless and near-homeless people in a variety of settings. On the night of Feb. 22, 2022, the PiT count found five people using housing vouchers to stay at motels in Yarmouth; 10 in Hyannis; and 28 in Falmouth.

    In total, the PiT count found 358 homeless people in Barnstable County, most of whom were in emergency shelters in Bourne, Falmouth, and Hyannis. There were also 13 people in domestic violence shelters and 24 who were unsheltered.

    The PiT count almost certainly understates the homeless and at-risk populations, according to Alexis Lanzilotta, a project manager at Barrett Planning Group, a consulting firm that works with local governments and is running the county’s community outreach efforts. It does not include any of the people who live in motels without a voucher, for instance. A separate search effort organized by the Dept. of Education found 339 homeless students attending public schools in Barnstable County, Lanzilotta said — another indication that the need is greater than the PiT count indicates.

    Jay Coburn, CEO of the Community Development Partnership, which is both an advocate for and developer of affordable housing on the Lower Cape, told the group that all $1.5 million of the county’s extra HOME allocation should go toward the various permanent affordable housing projects that are currently underway on Cape Cod. His reasoning as to why this is urgent: “There are several projects in the pipeline that are facing critical gaps due to the increased costs of construction.”

    The CDP, recently moved from Eastham to Orleans, is one of the lead developers of the 95 Lawrence Road affordable housing project in Wellfleet, which will include 46 units and had an initial cost estimate of $20.2 million.

    The Community Builders, who are developing 65 units of affordable housing in Provincetown, recently raised their cost estimate for that project from $22 million to $38 million, partly due to increased construction costs.

    “There are lots of different things that can be done with the ARPA funds that are interesting and needed,” Coburn said, “but I think the most strategic thing is to fund new units of housing.”

    Hammon said the county’s draft plan to spend the $1.5 million should be ready by the end of the year, with a public comment period and a public meeting to follow. A finalized allocation plan is due to the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development by the end of March.

    POLITICS

    Baker’s Veto May Deplete State’s ARPA Money

    $1.7 billion could now go to last month’s economic development bill

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — When Gov. Charlie Baker signed a $3.8-billion economic development bill two weeks ago, he threw in a curveball, vetoing a provision that said only $510 million would come from the state’s remaining share of federal American Rescue Plan Act money. The legislature had held back $1.7 billion in ARPA funds to allocate in a separate bill next year, but Baker said his veto would allow the state to spend that money on the current bill, leaving $1.7 billion of this year’s state tax receipts to spend next year instead.

    Even for experts, it can be hard to tell if these differences are semantic or meaningful. Newspapers and nonprofits that have sought to track the use of federal Covid relief money frequently run aground on the byzantine rules of state budgeting.

    The Mass. Budget and Policy Center put out a report last year titled “Where’s the Relief?” to help advocates keep track of the billions of dollars that have arrived in the state, especially from the $2.2-trillion CARES Act, passed in March 2020 as the pandemic shutdowns began, and the $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed by newly elected President Biden in March 2021.

    The author of that report, Nancy Wagman, said that Gov. Baker’s administration has been juggling massive pots of money, each with federal rules that can change multiple times in a single year.

    “There were frequently changing rules about which fund could cover which sorts of needs,” said Wagman. “Sometimes the administration would fund something out of one source and then switch it as the rules changed.”

    The rules are dry and technical, but decisions about where hundreds of millions of dollars ultimately will go are of vast importance.

    Baker’s team has largely received the benefit of the doubt, state Sen. Julian Cyr told the Independent, especially because Baker himself served as secretary of administration and finance for governors Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci. “Baker knows more about state finance than pretty much any governor ever,” Cyr said.

    Nevertheless, the $2.9 billion in tax rebates recently triggered by Chapter 62F, a revenue cap written into law by a ballot measure in 1986, has enraged many legislators. Those rebates were issued in direct proportion to the personal income taxes people paid last year — so a person who made $1 million last year received a check for about $28,000, according to a Mass. Budget and Policy Center analysis by Jason Wright. A median-income taxpayer might receive a $208 rebate, according to Wright’s report, and about half of lower-income households will receive nothing at all.

    State legislators including Cyr feel they were deprived of the chance to restructure the 62F rebate formulas this year, for instance by capping the rebates to any one taxpayer at between $3,000 and $6,000. That would have left more money for rebates to lower- and middle-income households.

    According to Commonwealth magazine, the State House News Service, and the Boston Globe, House Speaker Ron Mariano was especially angry at Baker for not alerting legislators to the likelihood of a 62F rebate in April — when his office of administration and finance began updating the rules for the rebates. Instead, most lawmakers and the public found out about the 62F rebates on July 27, when it was too late for the legislature to override vetoes.

    Baker’s actions ultimately ensured that the richest people in the state received $30,000 checks, Cyr said.

    ARPA and CARES

    Baker’s veto of the economic development provision could have the effect of spending down the state’s remaining ARPA money, leaving ordinary tax revenues in their place. The rules for ARPA money are relatively loose, according to Wagman, but acceptable uses include premium pay for essential workers; investments in water, sewer, and broadband; responding to the public health and economic effects of the pandemic; and replacing lost public sector revenue.

    The legislature wanted to go into next year with $1.7 billion still tied to those priorities. Baker’s preference for “spending down” the restricted ARPA funds could mean that the legislature will have $1.7 billion in unrestricted cash instead.

    Will that matter? The state’s use of CARES Act money may hold a clue.

    The CARES Act sent Massachusetts nearly $2 billion over which the state had considerable discretion, according to Wagman’s “Where’s the Relief?” report. That money went into a Coronavirus Relief Fund, created in July 2020 and controlled by the office of administration and finance.

    That office directed $253 million from the fund to the state’s prisons and jails, overseen by the Dept. of Corrections and the 14 county sheriffs. The money was used for “payroll and other payments to individuals” — not for Covid testing and personal protective equipment.

    Payroll at the prisons and jails did not meaningfully change from 2019 to 2020 to 2021, according to detailed payroll information on the state comptroller’s website. Nearly a third of the Dept. of Corrections payroll came from the Coronavirus Relief Fund, even though those costs were about the same as they had been in 2019.

    “Decisions about how to use the Coronavirus Relief Fund became, in many ways, a series of technical decisions for the administration,” Wagman said. Money that was earmarked for Covid relief could technically be used for prison guards. Wagman’s report says that the Baker administration was preparing to allocate another $550 million this way right up until the end of 2020.

    Instead, a new series of guidelines came from the federal government, and Baker’s team directed that $550 million into a small business grant program run by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corp. A total of $4.4 million came to 86 small businesses on the Outer Cape through that program, in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $75,000.

    A last-minute adjustment on Beacon Hill, in other words, meant several million for businesses out here. As discussions about $1.7 billion in ARPA money continue next year, those last-minute decisions could become just as important.

    ECONOMY

    Eastham to Offer Spruce-Up Grants

    By

    EASTHAM — The town plans to spend $125,000 to help selected local businesses improve their appearance.

    The plan is funded by the town’s allocation under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The remainder of Eastham’s $512,000 will be used mainly for wastewater projects.

    “Our plan is to help about four businesses a year,” said Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe.

    The project will start with a pilot year, economic development planner Lauren Barker said. Businesses will receive awards of up to $25,000 each. They will be required to contribute 20 percent of the total project cost. An additional $25,000 will be reserved for technical assistance, including engineering, marketing, and administration.

    Barker first proposed this approach at a planning board meeting last October and gave an update last month. Applications will be accepted from Sept. 15 to Oct. 17. A committee comprising town staff and business representatives will review the applications, and the select board will give out awards in December.

    Eligible improvements include outdoor seating for dining, painting and siding, shutters and awnings, landscaping and planter boxes, exterior signs, parking, and walkways.

    “We plan to apply,” said Crittenden Bliss, co-owner with his wife, Caroline, of Caroline’s Bar & Grill in North Eastham. If they get an award, the couple say, they may use the money to paint the building, improve the parking lot, or remove a derelict boat from the property.

    Proposals will be evaluated based on how they fit with the town’s strategic and economic priorities and their potential for community and economic impact. The aim is to increase sales, boost property values, create jobs, and enhance equity.

    “This is part of the grand vision,” Beebe said. “We’ve been working on this for five years or more.”

    The Cape Cod Commission designated a corridor of North Eastham along Route 6 as a District of Critical Planning Concern (DCPC) in 2017. Since then, the town has acquired the T-Time and Town Center Plaza properties with the aim of creating a walkable “downtown” in North Eastham. The exterior improvement funds are not intended for those properties, Barker said: “We have other sources of funding for those.”

    Barker said businesses outside the DCPC are eligible to apply for the exterior improvement funds.

    “We know businesses have been hit hard,” Beebe said. While special regulations created in response to the pandemic allowed restaurants to offer outdoor dining, that did not free them from zoning and health requirements. The exterior improvement funds could be used to help cover those costs.

    “We want to offer businesses a streamlined way to get compliant and give them some funds for that,” Barker said. Efforts could also focus on making parking areas more visually appealing or simply less visible.

    The selection committee will have five members: Barker, Town Planner Paul Lagg, select board member Art Autorino, Eastham Chamber of Commerce President Jim Russo, and Pam Andersen of the Community Development Partnership.

    TO THE RESCUE

    First $10 Million in ARPA Funds Begins to Reach Towns

    The county opens applications for a second round to private organizations

    By

    BARNSTABLE — Approvals are underway now on projects that will receive the first $10 million of the $41.4 million received by Barnstable County in American Rescue Plan Act funds. About $5.5 million of the money set aside for individual communities has been allocated already, according to ARPA program manager Kara Hughes — although the Outer Cape towns have yet to submit their proposals.

    A second funding round intended to broaden the applicant pool is now getting underway. In this round, an additional $5 million in grants ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 can be applied for not only by municipal departments, school districts, and county government bodies, but also by nonprofit and for-profit private organizations.

    Water and Sewers

    The first funding round is designed to distribute $10 million under a formula that establishes allotments for each of the Cape’s 15 towns. The formula is based on population, with an adjustment so that smaller towns like those on the Outer Cape will receive a little more than they otherwise would have and larger towns like Falmouth and Barnstable a little less.

    Seven towns have submitted grant applications. Most have been focused on securing money for water and sewer infrastructure, according to Hughes.

    Grants for Mashpee and Bourne have already been awarded. Mashpee will receive $657,653 —for the first phase of its water and sewer project — to defray costs of construction of a wastewater treatment plant adjacent to the town’s transfer station and collection system improvements.

    Bourne will get $750,276 to purchase two new ambulances to replace a couple of high-mileage vehicles. ARPA can fund public health items, including coronavirus-related capital expenses. The town also has a second grant application under review to tap the remaining $100,000 of its total allocation.

    Proposals from Barnstable, Falmouth, and Sandwich have been reviewed. All that remains is a vote to release the funding by county commissioners, expected on Aug. 24, said Hughes.

    Barnstable requested $1,965,218 to replace a sewer system pump station on its Main Street. The amount will max out the town’s allotment. Falmouth also plans to use its full allotment of $1,334,782 for wastewater treatment plant upgrades. And Sandwich has requested its full allotment of $849,301 for a water and sewer project for the town’s school district.

    While the four Outer Cape towns have yet to submit applications, Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe said Monday she expects to apply soon.

    Eastham, which qualifies for $301,420 under the county formula, plans to use the money for wastewater and stormwater programs, said Beebe. “We are close,” she wrote in an email. “We just need to pull all of the contracts and information together for the application.”

    Provincetown’s allocation under the Assembly of Delegates’ formula is $208,003. “We are close to submitting an application in relation to the next phase of the wastewater expansion project,” said Town Manager Alex Morse in an email. “The focus is to provide an assistance program for qualifying households for sewer connection fees.”

    Truro’s allotment is $139,312 and Wellfleet’s is $202,440. Truro Town Manager Darrin Tangeman and Wellfleet Town Administrator Rich Waldo did not respond to questions on the status of their grant applications by deadline.

    Round Two Begins

    At the recommendation of the ARPA Advisory Committee, county officials have set aside $5 million for small and medium-size projects: $2 million will go to small grants between $100,000 and $250,000; $3 million will provide grants of $250,000 to $500,000.

    Round two opened with two well-attended bidders conferences. Eligible applicants include nonprofits ranging from church groups to food banks, along with for-profit and private organizations, support or “friends of” organizations, town departments, and county entities.

    The first step is the submission of letters of intent. Assistant County Administrator Vaira Harik briefed the 170-plus prospective applicants on what the letters must include: a narrative describing what the project would accomplish, how challenges would be met, key people involved, a budget, and the expected outcomes and benefits of the project to county residents. Collaborations among organizations are encouraged, Harik said.

    “We’re not looking for War and Peace here,” Harik said of the letters, yet it was clear a lot of detailed information was required, including annual audit reports and tax forms. “We have to make sure you have the organizational capacity to understand and perform under these grant guidelines,” said Harik.

    Letters of intent must be submitted by Sept. 30. Only those who meet the criteria will be given access to the online portal for their applications. That process will run from Oct. 14 to Dec. 2. The county has hired an accounting firm to review the financial information. Applications will be reviewed from Jan. 23 to March 13, and the county commissioners will sign off on the awards in April.

    Uses for the funds are in three broad categories: water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure; public health systems and needs caused by Covid; and projects addressing negative Covid-related effects on housing, early education, and child care.

    The money can’t be for operating expenses and can’t supplant existing funding, Hairik said, and it’s not meant to duplicate federal or state assistance already available. “No double-dipping,” she said. Grants can supplement existing funds and can be used to partially fund a large project. “You just have to show how the piece being funded fits into the overall project,” Harik said.

    While the grants can pay for items like project design, they can’t be used to cover feasibility studies. “We want to fund projects that will have as much of a regional benefit as possible,” Harik said. Priority will be given to projects that benefit populations that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. She said this would include people of color, people of low socioeconomic status, older adults, and people with disabilities.

    Projects will be scored on how well they address one or more of the regional challenges identified by the Cape Cod Commission, including sewer and water quality issues, housing, child care, economic stability, climate change, and infrastructure.

    A group of towns might apply for a project that addresses a regional problem, Harik said. “We’re less interested in town-specific projects that only address a finite set of issues,” she said. “We are more interested in regional or subregional benefit.”

    The remainder of the ARPA grant to the county, about $25.4 million, will go to large water quality and housing projects in future funding rounds. About $1 million will cover the cost of administering the grants.

    THE COUNTY

    Assembly of Delegates OKs Formula for ARPA Fund Allocation

    Eastham will apply for money for a storm water project

    By

    BARNSTABLE — Towns may soon be able to submit requests for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding through an application portal set up by the Board of County Commissioners, now that the Assembly of Delegates has an allocation formula.

    As long as proposals fall within the purposes established under rather broad federal ARPA rules, it shouldn’t take long for the money to arrive. Assembly Speaker Patrick Princi said “the money should be readily available” as soon as the commissioners vote on the ordinance the Assembly approved on April 20.

    The commissioners were scheduled to take up the ordinance on April 27.

    About $20 million in ARPA funds has been sitting in county coffers since last May. The county will receive another $21 million in June.

    Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe said her community knows exactly how to use its allotment. “We are planning to submit for a storm water project in our wastewater plan for next year,” she said.

    The Assembly initially wanted $20 million to go directly to towns but compromised with the County Commission on $10 million. The priorities set by the county include infrastructure such as water, wastewater, and broadband projects, as well as uses like child care.

    The Assembly approved a distribution formula for $10 million of the ARPA pot, using each town’s population as a base. Allotments were adjusted so that smaller towns like Truro and Wellfleet received a little more than they otherwise would have and larger towns like Falmouth and Barnstable received a little less. The formula is based on 2020 census population figures.

    Town allocations from the $10 million follow:
    Barnstable: $1,965,218
    Bourne: $857,391
    Brewster: $495,633
    Chatham: $345,543
    Dennis: $647,205
    Eastham: $301,420
    Falmouth: $1,334,782
    Harwich: $616,255
    Mashpee: $664,229
    Orleans: $330,503
    Provincetown: $208,003
    Sandwich: $849,300
    Truro: $139,312
    Wellfleet: $202,440
    Yarmouth: $1,042,760

    If the amounts had been based solely on population, Truro would have received $32,149 less, Wellfleet $46,716 less, Provincetown $48,000 less, and Eastham $50, 236 less than the adjusted amounts.

    Distribution of the remaining $31 million will be done via the ordinance process, which requires a public hearing along with approval by both the Assembly and County Commission. Individual proposals for the first $10 million won’t have to go through the ordinance process. Money will be released after county staff determine a town’s proposed use fits the criteria.

    Truro Town Manager Darrin Tangeman said that the town is poised to submit its project proposals. “We have the two projects (broadband planning and comprehensive wastewater management planning) that are ready to be submitted through the portal,” he said.

    SENATORS SPEAK

    Cyr and Moran Sway Assembly to Step Back

    A regional process will continue for county’s ARPA millions

    By

    BARNSTABLE — Right up until the day of the vote, it looked like the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates was going to steamroll the County Commissioners’ opposition to distributing $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding directly to the Cape’s 15 communities.

    Then Cape Cod’s state senators, Julian Cyr and Susan Moran, showed up at the meetings of the county’s two governing boards on April 6 to urge both sides to get along.

    And, with a little grumbling, they did.

    At stake is $41.37 million in federal funds that the ARPA legislation directed to Barnstable County. Last May, more than $20 million arrived, but none has been allocated. A second $20-million payment is set to arrive by June.

    After several months of arguments about who should decide how the money is spent, it appeared the County Commission and the Assembly were working together.

    Last month, the commission sent a proposal to the Assembly allotting $10 million directly to the 15 towns in proportion to population. The Assembly doubled that amount to $20 million. Miffed, the commission vetoed the change.

    The Assembly gets the final word in the back and forth, since it can override a commission veto with a two-thirds majority vote. It looked as though the Assembly was set to do just that on April 6.

    Senators Weigh In

    Cyr warned the commission against moving too quickly, despite complaints from town officials that the process was too slow.

    “Sometimes, when we move more deliberately, we have a better result for the taxpayers,” Cyr said. “It’s clear the Assembly has wanted to see a greater share flowing to the towns. I think that’s a missed opportunity.”

    The towns are getting significant cash infusions already from the short-term rental tax, Cyr pointed out, and some also have host fees from cannabis operations.

    “From our perspective, distributing large amounts to the towns doesn’t make sense,” Cyr said. Instead of using the “once-in-a-generation” federal ARPA money on smaller town projects or to balance municipal budgets, it would be better to address large regional challenges such as water quality, climate change, housing, and child care. The county’s cash investment could be doubled or even tripled by matching state funding for those uses, he said.

    Cyr also told the commission that “both branches of the government” should be involved in decision-making on ARPA funds. “I encourage a collaborative process,” he said.

    Later in the meeting, commission chair Sheila Lyons offered an apology for the previous week’s vote by her panel to seize full control of the $41 million, set aside $10 million for the towns instead of $20 million, and open the application portal for projects. Lyons moved to rescind that vote, calling it a “mistake.”

    Commissioner Ronald Bergstrom, who had supported the previous week’s decision to cut the Assembly out of the process, voted with Lyons to rescind that vote. He added the caveat that “my patience is very thin” — but noted that the patience of the Assembly was probably thin as well.

    Assembly Action

    The Assembly of Delegates met a few hours after the County Commissioners. On the agenda was an override of the Commissioners’ veto of the $20-million disbursement to towns.

    Cyr once again lobbied for slowing down and investing the money in regional initiatives that would attract other funding from the state.

    Some delegates later said Cyr’s advice prompted them to change their votes on the override.

    Five delegates spoke fervently in favor of securing the $20 million for the towns, but ultimately eight were opposed, and the override failed.

    Among those who voted against the override was Speaker Patrick Princi, the Barnstable delegate, whose vote is worth 21 percent of the total in the Assembly’s weighted voting system.

    Pointing to the County Commission’s action earlier in the day, Princi said arguments over distribution of the money should be set aside.

    “We’ve been in the dark on a lot of this stuff, and the towns have waited for the money since last fall,” the speaker said. “But today, they made it clear they want us to be part of the process.”

    Princi also praised the makeup of the regional leaders panel that will set spending priorities for the funds.

    Princi said he would back off the $20 million allocation and support the original $10 million offered by the County Commission. “We’ve got a great group working with us on this,” he said, “and we have the Commissioners finally agreeing to work with us, so at this point, I’m not looking to jam $20 million and say this is how it has to be. If need be, we can file another ordinance for more money in the future.”

    Voting with Princi against the override were Dennis delegate John Ohman, Eastham delegate Terence Gallagher, Wellfleet delegate Lilli-Ann Green, Provincetown delegate Brian O’Malley, Truro delegate Sallie Tighe, Harwich delegate Elizabeth Harder, and Yarmouth delegate Susan Warner. Collectively, those eight represent 50 percent of the Assembly’s weighted votes.

    O’Malley said the Commissioners’ previous vote was “arrogant” and triggered an emotional response. His reaction had been “We’re not going to be pushed around like that,” he said. Cyr’s promise that ARPA spending for big regional projects could be doubled or tripled with state money convinced him that investing in regional projects was the best approach, he said.

    Sandwich delegate James Killion urged his colleagues to support the override. They had the votes to do it, he argued, and the money has been sitting in county coffers for a year. Based on an 8-percent inflation rate, “We’ve lost roughly $1.6 million in buying power,” Killion said. “I hate to see the Assembly snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

    Orleans delegate David Dunford agreed. “I still come down on the side that $20 million is very fair,” he said. Daniel Gessen, a new delegate from Falmouth, also supported the override, saying it was “in the best interest of Falmouth and the Cape” to move forward with spending.

    The other votes to override were from Mashpee delegate Thomas O’Hara and Chatham delegate Randi Potash. The delegates from Bourne and Brewster did not vote.

    BLAME GAME

    $41 Million in ARPA Funds Still Stalled at County

    With half the money in, county officials can’t agree on distribution plan

    By

    BARNSTABLE — The two branches of Barnstable County’s government have been at odds for nearly a year about how $41.37 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds should be distributed. After a series of steps forward over the last few weeks, the two groups appear to be once again at a stalemate.

    Last May, more than $20 million in ARPA funds arrived in the county. The money has still not been allocated. The second half of the funding is set to arrive by June. At issue is whether and how much of the funds should go to regional projects versus individual towns.

    The Assembly of Delegates, the county’s legislative branch, recently approved an ordinance to give out $20 million from the fund directly to the county’s 15 towns. That move doubled the amount the Board of County Commissioners, the executive branch, wanted to channel in that direction.

    Last week, the county commissioners, visibly riled by the assembly’s plan, vetoed it.

    The county commission then put out a press release saying the assembly’s $20-million ordinance would divert all the ARPA money thus far received directly to the towns, leaving nothing for oversight or “critical funding to address any of Cape Cod’s regional issues — such as aiding the Cape’s economic recovery, improving the region’s public health, or addressing groundwater contamination affecting our ponds, lakes, and streams and drinking water supplies.”

    To “avoid further confusion and delay in the release of ARPA funds,” the county commissioners said, they would move forward, “as it is permitted to do under state and federal law and under the terms of the grant.” They propose to open an application portal that towns could use to apply for funds. The portal process would be used to allocate only the $10 million the commissioners had proposed for direct payments to communities.

    The assembly’s ordinance was aimed at getting the approximately $20 million that has been in the county’s account for nearly a year out to the towns to use for projects that are ready to go. The commission’s announcement indicated that it was done trying to work with the assembly.

    The Assembly Responds

    As expected, the Assembly of Delegates agenda for its March 30 meeting includes a measure to override the county commissioners’ action.

    Provincetown’s delegate, Brian O’Malley, said he favored an override. “I’m sorry this has come to a head,” he wrote by email. “I think it is an embarrassment for our regional government.”

    O’Malley believes that the commissioners don’t have the authority to simply distribute the money without the involvement of the assembly.

    “As representatives of the towns, the assembly must play a primary role in making these determinations,” he said. “Our county charter makes the financial oversight responsibility of the assembly abundantly clear.”

    An override requires a two-thirds majority vote in the assembly. That may be a tough hurdle — not because the delegates disagree on the issue but because several of them will not be able to vote due to conflict-of-interest rules.

    The votes of the assembly’s delegates are weighted according to their towns’ populations. As a result, the Barnstable delegate wields nearly 21 percent of the total, while Truro’s vote counts for less than one percent.

    A two-thirds majority requires at least 67 percent of the total weighted votes.

    Falmouth delegate Douglas Brown resigned from the assembly last week because he chairs his town’s select board and had received an opinion from the state Ethics Commission that votes related to the ARPA money create a conflict of interest for him. Falmouth’s weighted vote equals 14.61 percent of the total.

    The Falmouth Select Board could quickly appoint a replacement for Brown, which is what Brown, the chair, hopes will happen. Since the assembly has 14 days to act on the commissioners’ veto, the vote could conceivably be delayed until Brown is replaced.

    The assembly’s deputy speaker, Mary Chaffee, has recused herself from votes on ARPA because she is on Brewster’s select board. Delegate George Slade told the Independent in an email that he will recuse himself as well until his term on the Bourne Select Board expires in May. Thomas O’Hara, a member of Mashpee’s select board, may also recuse himself, based on the opinion of the Ethics Commission.

    Without the votes of delegates from those large towns it will be difficult to achieve the super majority needed to override the county commission. And if Falmouth doesn’t replace Brown, it will be impossible.

    Opinions on ARPA

    Some Outer Cape municipal leaders clearly favor the assembly’s approach.

    “We made it clear to the county that we would like the funds distributed to the town,” wrote Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe by email. “This very long and convoluted process is frustrating, as the money sits in the county coffers. Our position was, please just decide and make the process as simple as possible.”

    Beebe said Eastham has prioritized addressing stormwater runoff into ponds and is ready to begin work.

    Truro’s delegate, Sallie Tighe, said there has been enough debate. “We have the funds to do things,” Tighe said by phone. “We should be on roller skates and take care of business.”

    The select board in Truro sent a letter to the county commissioners in December saying it would like funds to address local wastewater needs and to improve broadband in town. “Being connected and digitized is essential to our public safety and economic opportunities,” the board wrote.

    Truro Town Manager Darrin Tangeman said that the town’s needs related to water and wastewater, as well as broadband, could also be addressed by a regional project.

    David Dunford, the assembly delegate from Orleans, said he strongly supports sending the first $20 million to the towns, particularly because the county is getting a total of $41 million. “The town leaders have indicated to me that Orleans has many shovel-ready projects that fit the ARPA criteria,” Dunford said. Some of those will be brought before town meeting voters in May, he noted.

    Saying that he was speaking for himself, Wellfleet Select Board chair Ryan Curley said he was disappointed that the commissioners and assembly have not been able to find a compromise. He wants at least some of the ARPA funds to go directly to towns, with each getting a base amount and then a supplement based on population.

    Recovery funds previously sent directly to the town were put into its affordable housing trust, Curley said. “The need is vast, and that use is well suited from both a regional and local perspective,” he said.

    Assembly Speaker Patrick Princi, Barnstable’s delegate, doesn’t want the dispute to end up in court, which would cost both branches money. He wants to continue using the ordinance process. “Maybe we can look into a compromise to work things out,” he said. Princi called the commissioners’ veto “a sour-grapes mentality.”

    Such disagreements happen all the time at the state level, Princi said. Legislators then work out a compromise with the governor, he said. A compromise can still be reached through the ordinance process, the speaker added.

    Weighted Voting in the Assembly of Delegates

    The populations of towns in Barnstable County vary widely. Each town has one member in the Assembly of Delegates, but their votes are weighted. Thus the Barnstable delegate’s vote counts more than 22 times as much as the Truro delegate’s. The four Outer Cape towns together have 5.86 percent of the vote; while Yarmouth, Falmouth, and Barnstable together have 46.55 percent. —Christine Legere

    Barnstable: 20.92%
    Falmouth: 14.61%
    Yarmouth: 11.02%
    Sandwich: 9.58%
    Bourne: 9.15%
    Dennis: 6.58%
    Mashpee: 6.49%
    Harwich: 5.67%
    Brewster: 4.55%
    Chatham: 2.84%
    Orleans: 2.73%
    Eastham: 2.30%
    Provincetown: 1.36%
    Wellfleet: 1.27%
    Truro: .93%

    THE COUNTY

    Two Branches Spar Over Allocation of ARPA Cash

    Assembly of Delegates moves to double the amount going directly to towns

    By

    Editor’s note: This article has been updated since the deadline for the March 24 print edition.

    BARNSTABLE — A new disagreement over how to allocate more than $41 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds is brewing between the two branches of Barnstable County government.

    The county commissioners proposed setting aside $10 million for direct payments to the 15 towns and gave the Assembly of Delegates the authority to determine how the amounts for each town would be calculated.

    But before any discussion of the commissioners’ proposal took place, the Assembly voted at its March 16 meeting to double that amount. The Assembly majority wants to distribute $20 million directly to towns.

    The commissioners voted on Wednesday to reject the Assembly’s ordinance.

    Commissioner Ronald Bergstrom suggested abandoning the ordinance process for distribution of the $41.37 million in ARPA funds, which would effectively cut the Assembly out of the decision-making.

    “The time has come to proceed according to the advice of the county’s general counsel and special counsel,” Bergstrom said. The attorneys’ opinion was that the ARPA funding is a federal grant. The county commission has sole authority over distribution of grants.

    Chair Sheila Lyons agreed with Bergstrom. “We had tried to include the Assembly as a collaborative partner, and it definitely has not been that,” she said.

    The third commissioner, Mark Forest, has recused himself from all deliberations about ARPA money because he is chair of the Yarmouth select board. He has been advised that creates a conflict of interest.

    Half of the ARPA funds arrived in the county from the federal government last May, but none has yet been spent. The second half, more than $20 million, should arrive by this June.

    Randi Potash, the Chatham delegate, presented the motion. She argued that the process proposed by the commissioners, which includes a study of priorities by an advisory council that could take up to seven months, would take too long.

    “The towns have projects that are shovel ready,” Potash said. “It makes perfect sense to allow them the lion’s share of the funds.”

    All the Assembly members present on March 16 voted in favor of Potash’s motion except Terry Gallagher, the Eastham delegate. In an email to the Independent, Gallagher said he was surprised his was the sole dissenting vote.

    “I voted the way I did because I believe Barnstable County government exists for an important reason: to deal with matters on a regional level, where it makes sense for our 15 towns to work together,” said Gallagher. “We worked hard at the county level to define the process that would address ARPA projects as a region. I voted ‘no’ to preserve that process.”

    Even if the money were not distributed directly, the towns would still have been able to submit their individual applications for the county funds, Gallagher said.

    On Sunday, commission chair Sheila Lyons of Wellfleet said her panel would meet on March 23 to discuss what action to take. “We’ve gone out of our way to work with the Assembly,” Lyons said.

    The commission’s attorney had determined that the federal money was categorized as a grant, and as such is under the sole authority of the commission. But the Assembly’s attorney had offered a different opinion, saying the Assembly should also be involved.

    After several weeks of debate, the commissioners sent over their proposed ordinance giving the Assembly the $10 million along with the authority to set a formula for dividing the money up for the 15 towns.

    “We worked very hard to make them part of the process,” Lyons said. Of the Assembly’s vote to up the towns’ cut to $20 million, Lyons said, “I don’t think it was helpful.”

    Commissioner Ron Bergstrom of Chatham, reached by phone, expressed outrage. “By passing this ordinance, they have basically crossed the line,” he said.

    The commission doesn’t have to honor the arrangement to make decisions on the ARPA funds via the ordinance process, Bergstrom said: “We could just go back to the legal opinion that we have authority over the funds.”

    Assembly speaker Patrick Princi of Barnstable called Bergstrom’s comment “unfortunate.”

    “If it’s not going the way he wants it, it’s going back to the lawyers,” Princi said. That won’t benefit the commission or the Assembly, the speaker said, and it just wastes money.

    In a phone interview, Assembly member Potash pointed out that her motion could have been for the entire $41.37 million. Nine of the 15 communities favored getting the ARPA money directly, when polled by county administrators.

    Following the meeting, Wellfleet delegate Lilli Ann Green said Assembly members have not been satisfied with the county commissioners’ pace. “We have been asking for months what the county’s plan is for the use of the money,” Green said. “We have not to date received what the plans are, and the money is just sitting there.”

    The Assembly issued a press release a few hours after its decision to double the amount designated for direct distribution to the towns.

    “Towns want to know how much money they will get and when,” said Princi in the press release. “This ordinance will clarify and fast-track the money towns deserve.”

    The formula for distributing the money to the towns will be taken up by the Assembly at its next meeting, set for March 30. If it is distributed based on each town’s population, smaller towns — and the four on the Outer Cape are the smallest, according to Census Bureau data posted on the Cape Cod Commission’s website — would get the smallest portions.

    One suggestion would establish a uniform base amount for each town, with the rest of the funds allocated according to population.

    “We’ll craft a formula that is fair and equitable,” said Princi, “and in the best interests of all the towns, big and small.”

    Princi’s town, Barnstable, with nearly 48,000 residents, is by far the largest in the county.

    COUNTY GOVERNMENT

    $10M in ARPA Cash May Arrive

    Commissioners move to free up some funds quickly

    By

    Officials in nine of the 15 Barnstable County towns want to see the entire $41.37 million the county will get in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds distributed directly to their communities, according to county staff who recently met with them. The other six towns want some money to flow to their communities but also support funding regional projects.

    The county commissioners took an initial step toward making some funds available at their Feb. 23 meeting. Chair Sheila Lyons of Wellfleet and member Ron Bergstrom of Chatham voted to free up $10 million to be allocated to the towns.

    Under their proposed ordinance, the Assembly of Delegates will decide how the money is apportioned. It could be based solely on population, which would mean larger towns would get the biggest amounts; or it could include a fixed base amount for all towns combined with population-based supplements.

    The Assembly was expected to discuss the proposed ordinance on March 2 and set a date for a formal hearing on it. Initially, the Assembly will consider whether to approve the ordinance as proposed. If it does, the panel will have 31 days from the ordinance’s approval to decide on the details of how amounts would be apportioned.

    Lyons said the decision was best left to the Assembly because its membership represents all 15 towns. As she put it, “They are the people.”

    At the commissioners’ meeting, Bergstrom said he wasn’t in favor of basing the allotments on population. “It costs as much to hire a police chief in Wellfleet as it does in Falmouth,” Bergstrom said. “There are fixed costs small towns are dealing with that aren’t related to their population.”

    Commissioner Mark Forest recused himself from the decision because he chairs the Yarmouth Select Board. The town, he said, has a great interest in acquiring ARPA funds, which would create a conflict of interest for him.

    The Assembly making a decision on dividing the $10 million won’t mean that communities will be sent checks right away. They must submit applications via a portal that county officials will oversee. The portal will open sometime in March.

    “As long as it’s within the parameters of the ARPA grant, they go in and take their money,” Lyons said. Their applications would supply the information the county must provide to state and federal officials regarding the money’s use. Funds can be used for a wide array of purposes: infrastructure, affordable housing, public health, offsetting negative effects of Covid, premium pay for essential workers, and revenue replacement for the towns.

    The communities don’t have to spend their allotments all at once, but some do have “shovel ready” projects for which they may want to seek funding, Lyons said.

    The deadline for the county to allocate the ARPA funds isn’t until the end of 2024. The money doesn’t have to be fully spent until 2026.

    To date, the county has received $20.68 million. The second half will arrive in June.

    Annual town meetings are fast approaching, Lyons said. Establishing the amounts each town can expect will help with their financial decision making.

    Under the ordinance process, the Assembly of Delegates may vote not to adopt the proposal sent by the commissioners. Members could also decide to amend it. They could even vote to carve out more than $10 million for the individual communities. Whatever is approved will go back to the county commission. That panel can veto the Assembly’s acts, but the Assembly can override a veto with a two-thirds vote.

    An advisory council will be appointed to review regional proposals. That panel will not be weighing in on individual town projects.

    The county administration had been working since December on ways to get public input on the use of the $41.37 million. About 6,000 residents responded to a survey, according to Assistant County Administrator Vaira Harik.

    While the median age in Barnstable County is 54 years, the median age of respondents was 66. Participation was low in the four Outer Cape towns.

    The 6,000 respondents were asked to rank the ARPA qualifying categories for regional funding. They placed infrastructure at the top, followed by affordable housing, public health, and early education and child care.

    The top priority cited by the four Outer Cape towns, however, was affordable housing, with infrastructure second.

    ARPA AT THE STATE HOUSE

    Parsing the Possibilities in a $4 Billion Bill

    ‘An opportunity to solve some of our biggest problems’

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Last fall, the state government combined $2.5 billion in federal Covid relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act and an unexpected surplus of $1.5 billion in tax revenues to create a $4-billion supplemental spending bill.

    If you haven’t read it yet, the enormous bill, passed and signed in December, has over a dozen major titles — nearly $1 billion for health-care programs, more than $600 million for housing, and $500 million for “premium pay” bonuses for lower-income frontline workers.

    That’s only half the picture, though. The legislature is likely to pass another bill this summer that could approach another $4 billion: nearly half of the federal rescue money, about $2.3 billlion, remains to be spent, according to the Mass. Taxpayers’ Foundation, and tax receipts are again on track to be billions above estimates. State Sen. Julian Cyr said he expects to see the second bill pass before July 31.

    Together, the two bills are “an unprecedented amount of money,” said Cyr.

    “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to deploy resources to solve some of our biggest problems,” Cyr said. “If people have priorities or ideas, we want to hear about it.”

    The bill that passed in December is often referred to simply as “the ARPA bill,” partly because its proper name is forgettable: “An act relative to immediate Covid-19 recovery needs.”

    This is confusing because the federal American Rescue Plan Act is known as ARPA. And municipalities across the country did receive some ARPA money directly: Provincetown’s allocation was $309,000; Truro received $210,000; Wellfleet, $285,000; and Eastham, $513,000.

    Counties got money, too. Barnstable County received $41 million through ARPA, leaving the County Commission and Assembly of Delegates to iron out how to allocate it.

    The lion’s share of federal ARPA money went to state governments, however. Massachusetts got $5.3 billion.

    What Does $4 Billion Buy?

    Under health care, the largest investment by far is $400 million for mental and behavioral health, including addiction-related care. Of that, $110 million is for a loan forgiveness program for mental health providers. They would need to sign a four-year contract with the state to get the funds and would need to work in certain settings, including community health centers, such as Outer Cape Health Services, or acute-care hospitals, such as Cape Cod Healthcare’s hospitals in Hyannis and Falmouth.

    Cyr said he believes the loan program will help communities build up a behavioral care workforce.

    Massachusetts does a good job at educating providers, said Cyr, but many of them decamp to more affordable states when they graduate. “This is going to incentivize more providers to stick around and work for organizations like Outer Cape Health and others that take health insurance,” said Cyr.

    Then there is $260 million for “fiscally strained hospitals,” followed by $200 million for public health, including almost $100 million for standardized data systems and more than $70 million for direct grants to local boards of health.

    Tucked inside the mental health allocations: a $15-million matching grant program to help municipalities develop “pre-arrest co-response programs,” through which municipal police departments and mental health clinicians would collaborate on mental health and substance use calls.

    Housing Programs

    About two-thirds of the $624 million allocated for housing would go to subsidized rental housing, while the other third is for some newer affordable ownership programs.

    Infrastructure improvements at public housing would get $150 million. That could benefit the Maushope senior housing complex run by the Provincetown Housing Authority.

    Another $150 million is directed to more permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless, survivors of domestic violence, people transitioning out of foster care, seniors, and veterans.

    Another $115 million is set aside for “the production and preservation of affordable rental housing,” which is the most common type of subsidized housing on the Outer Cape.

    The bill commits significant new money to affordable home ownership strategies. The state’s down-payment assistance program, for example, received only $7.5 million over the last three years; this bill provides another $65 million.

    The Commonwealth Builder program, which helps create affordable home ownership units for near-median and median earners, was launched in 2019 with a $60 million fund. This bill adds another $115 million to the program.

    Premium Pay

    Two of the largest titles in the bill were calibrated to match each other: $500 million to replenish the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which is normally paid for by employers, and $500 million for “premium pay” bonuses to essential pandemic workers.

    The details are unclear because Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed most of the language that tried to guide eligibility for the premium pay, citing potential delays caused by the legislature’s 28-person advisory committee.

    But the law and the governor’s signing statement suggest that $500 checks will go to about a million state residents, directed first to people earning 300 percent of federal poverty level or below (that’s $38,600 per year for a single person, or $52,200 per year for a two-person household).

    But Wait, There’s More!

    Other funding that is important to the Outer Cape includes $100 million for water and sewer improvements, $90 million for marine port infrastructure, and $50 million for broadband (see related story on page A1). There is also $100 million for ventilation improvements at public schools.

    And while the overall number is small, the $75 million in small business grants includes a special set-aside that may help those who were new or expanding and could not show a revenue loss for calendar 2020, and therefore did not qualify for previous state relief grants.

    THAT $41 MILLION

    County Government Prepares to Distribute ARPA ‘Pot of Gold’

    Water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure are officials’ top priorities

    By

    Money from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is already flowing into most cities and towns across Massachusetts. But not on Cape Cod.

    That’s because most of the county governments in the Bay State were abolished between 1997 and 2000. Barnstable County is one of just five counties remaining where the designation means more than mere geography.

    Here on Cape Cod, $41.3 million in ARPA funds will be allocated through the county. The process of determining how that money will be distributed put the two branches of county government — the Assembly of Delegates and the County Commission — which generally work well together, at odds for a period of weeks.

    The $41.3 million, which Mary Chaffee, deputy speaker of the Assembly of Delegates, has referred to as “a literal pot of gold,” is more than double the county’s annual budget. No wonder it provoked what, in a phone interview, Provincetown’s delegate Brian O’Malley called “a schoolyard fight.”

    “We all know we have to work really hard to explain the value of county government,” said Chaffee during the debate on the process for allocating the money.

    County Commissioner Sheila Lyons, who lives in Wellfleet, went a step further, urging the groups to work quickly to settle on a process and saying that if distribution of funds were held up “because people can’t get their acts together,” the government could take the money back.

    Still, both bodies hired attorneys to draw up proposals for how the money should be distributed. The County Commission hired attorney James Lampke, an expert on government charters, to provide advice. Attorney Robert Troy has been advising the Assembly. The cost of that advice isn’t known, since the county has not yet been billed for it, according to spokesperson Sonja Sheasley.

    The dust has now settled, it appears. Based on a vote by the Assembly on Dec. 15, the county’s so-called ordinance process will be followed for distributing the funds.

    Towns as well as other entities, such as nonprofit organizations, will be able to submit applications for funding via an online portal early this year.

    These submissions will be reviewed by a yet-to-be-appointed advisory committee of volunteers. The advisory committee will send its recommendations to the County Commission, which will in turn forward its recommendations in the form of ordinances to the Assembly of Delegates. Following a public hearing, the Assembly will vote on which of the ordinances to adopt. A 30-day waiting period follows. The County Commission can then write the checks.

    Federal officials established broad categories for use of the funds, and county leaders have named water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure projects as their top priorities. Other priorities include public health, addressing economic harms of the pandemic, and making up for lost public sector revenue.

    Assembly Speaker Patrick Princi of Barnstable said that he anticipated that some of the county money would be used for regional projects, and the rest could be distributed to the towns. According to Princi, state Sen. Julian Cyr recently told the Assembly there may be state money for regional projects like water quality and broadband. The county could hold back some of the ARPA allotment in anticipation of combining it with state money.

    While members of the County Commission and the Assembly worried that their spat could prompt people to question the value of county government, Chaffee said there has historically been no talk of abolishing Barnstable County government. Other counties in Massachusetts were abolished “due to corruption and inefficient bureaucracy” in many cases, she said.

    “Cape Cod regional government, because of its track record of public support and fiscal competence, was established as the only bicameral [two-branch] county government in the state through our home rule charter in 1988,” Chaffee said. “Many of the rural Cape towns could not provide the services that the county can do efficiently.”

    Barnstable County’s services to its communities run the gamut from regional planning, bulk purchasing, dredging, tick monitoring, and pest management to Narcan distribution, homelessness programs, food security, and emergency planning.

    The Administration and Finance Federal Funds Office listed the amounts that the towns in Barnstable County would have received had the $41.3 million been divided among them rather than put in the hands of county officials for distribution. Allotments were based on population: Eastham would have received nearly $952,933 from the county pot, Provincetown $575,140, Wellfleet $529,105, and Truro $390,030.

    POLITICS

    County Boards Fighting Over ARPA Millions

    Commissioners and Assembly each want control of funds

    By

    Barnstable County officials are battling over who gets to decide on the distribution of $41.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from the federal treasury.

    The three county commissioners, including Sheila Lyons of Wellfleet, initially argued that the money is a grant, and that under state law they are solely responsible for allocating grant funds.

    But the 15-member Assembly of Delegates, with one member elected from each Cape Cod town, disagreed. They said the money should be distributed under the ordinance process prescribed in the county charter, with the Assembly having the final say.

    Efforts at reaching a compromise have seen options and counter-options bouncing back and forth like ping-pong balls between the two panels.

    In the latest development, the Assembly unanimously voted on Dec. 15 to override a veto by the commissioners of the Assembly’s ordinance spelling out how the ARPA funds would be managed. Before that vote, the Assembly’s lawyer, Robert Troy of Sandwich, told the members that they represent the 15 towns in the county and speak for them.

    “We need to look at whether the voice of the communities should be heard,” Troy said.

    Mary Chaffee of Brewster, deputy speaker of the Assembly, said overriding a veto by the county commissioners was rare, “but I strongly support overriding this veto.”

    At the same session, the Assembly unanimously voted to reject the commissioners’ proposal for managing the ARPA funds without allowing it to come to the floor for discussion.

    $20 Million Already Received

    The ARPA money comes to the county in two equal installments. The first half, over $20 million, has already arrived. The second half will be paid out in 2022.

    Federal officials set broad categories for use of the funds, and County leaders have named water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure projects as top priorities. The wish list also includes public health, addressing the economic harms of the pandemic, and making up for lost public sector revenue, according to Assistant County Administrator Vaira Harik. Applicants for the money may include municipalities, nonprofit organizations, and several other entities.

    The three county commissioners are elected to four-year terms in countywide votes. The current chair is Ron Bergstrom of Chatham, Lyons is vice chair, and the third member is Mark Forest of South Yarmouth. They prepare the county budget, appoint the county administrator and other employees, and oversee disbursement of funds. They can also propose ordinances for Assembly action and can veto ordinances adopted by the Assembly.

    The Assembly is the county’s legislative branch; members are elected to two-year terms by their individual towns. Their votes are weighted based on the populations of their respective communities.

    The Assembly can override the commissioners’ veto of an adopted ordinance via a two-thirds vote.

    The commissioners initially planned to solicit applications for the ARPA money through an online portal starting early in 2022. Those would be reviewed for compliance by staff and then sent to an advisory council organized by County Administrator Beth Albert. The council’s recommendations would be reviewed by the commissioners, who would then write the checks for the ones they approved.

    The Assembly of Delegates argued that the money should be allocated through ordinances proposed by the commissioners or members of the Assembly and followed by public hearings. Proposed ordinances must be adopted by the Assembly and approved by the commissioners.  Following a 31-day waiting period, the ordinance goes into effect.

    The commissioners at first proposed a joint process that would involve “resolutions” rather than ordinances, thereby avoiding the hearing process and the 31-day delay.

    But the Assembly didn’t even discuss that proposal. Instead, it unanimously adopted an ordinance dictating that all spending of ARPA funds be done solely via ordinances.

    Chaffee called it “a clean and simple method of appropriating ARPA funds. Both branches can carry out their responsibilities without a memorandum of understanding or meetings with lawyers or tabletop exercises to test a new process,” Chaffee told her colleagues. “It’s how we routinely conduct the county’s business.”

    The Assembly would make sure to keep the process moving, she said. “We know these funds are needed in the towns we represent,” she said.

    The commissioners vetoed the Assembly’s ordinance, objecting to a lack of specifics on the review process and the delay inherent in the ordinance process. Then they proposed their own ordinance, which was essentially the same as their earlier proposal, simply changing the word “resolutions” to “grant agreements.”

    The veto was overridden, and the commissioners’ ordinance was rejected this week. Both votes were unanimous.

    Commissioners Lyons and Forest had said before this week’s action that they were willing to work with the Assembly to resolve the dispute. But Bergstrom was not in a conciliatory mood.

    Bergstrom said comments made by Chaffee and by Assembly Speaker Patrick Princi of Barnstable “seemed to indicate I wasted a month of their time by presenting compromises, and that they were right, we were wrong.”

    Of the ordinance that had been adopted by the Assembly and sent to the commissioners, Bergstrom said, “It represents not one step in our direction; not one attempt to compromise.”

    Editor’s note:  This article has been revised and updated since it was published in the print edition dated Dec. 16, 2021.

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