Minutes of the ARPA Funds Working Group
February 17, 2022, by Zoom
Attending: Brianna Carvalho, Karen Gifford, Wes Higgins, Mary Dale Lancaster, Chris Parkin, James Sanders
The meeting was called to order at 5.02 p.m. by Chair Higgins.
The minutes of the February 10, 2022 meeting were reviewed and approved.
The working group discussed the meeting schedule for the coming months. They agreed to a schedule that included meetings at 5 pm on Thursday February 24, March 3, and March 17, 2022. They would have a report with a number of recommended projects provided to the Board of Selectmen for their March 21st meeting. The working group would meet again on March 31st and every two weeks thereafter until June 16 when they would finalize a list of recommendation of additional projects for the Board of Selectmen for their June 20th meeting. Meetings would continue in a similar way through the summer, as needed, to prepare recommendations for the September Board of Selectmen meeting.
Karen Gifford presented her draft for the sponsor project template and there was a discussion of edits to the language. The group agreed that sponsors would have a working group member assigned as a liaison to facilitate the preparation and presentation of their projects. All agreed that discussions of the merit of any project should occur in open session.
The members endorsed the idea of a mailing to the Town residents before March 20th to alert them to the availability of ARPA funds and the process of submitting projects.
Wes Higgins then discussed the dashboard that is designed to track proposals. There was agreement on circulating weekly updates to the list.
Adjourned at 6:02 p.m. (motion made by K. Gifford, seconded by M. Lancaster)
Submitted by Wes Higgins