Mayor Eddie Sundquist presented to City Council the initial master plan for how the City hopes to spend $28 million dollars in American Rescue Plan Act Recovery Funds.
Sundquist said Jamestown has already received around $14 million, or about half of its funding. He said the plan is focused on spurring economic development, “And really creating what we call that shot in the arm for the City. It can’t be used to plug a hole in the budget. It can’t be used to fill a hole in the pension line. It can’t be used for debt, but it can be used for various projects of which frees up funding in our budget line for other things.”
The funding must be committed by 2024 and spent by 2026 or returned back to the Treasury Department. Sundquist said the money would be distributed over five funding classifications, or buckets, “We’re allocating $10 million to economic development, $5 million to water, sewer, broadband initiatives; $2 million to mental health and housing initiatives, and about $900,000 to transparency and tracking.”
Sundquist said $10 million is also set aside for lost revenue, which is assumed on a formula that calculates losses over a four year period, “Every year, at the end of the year, we can immediately take lost revenue and apply it to general services, whether that’s to roads, construction projects, to parks. Any lost revenue category can be immediately be applied. So tomorrow, the council can make a budget adjustment, take approximately $1 to $2 million we’ve already accrued for 2020 and apply it to projects tomorrow.”
Sundquist said potential projects that lost revenue funding can be used on include capital park projects like a Splash Pad, a Dog Park, and a disc golf course. Fire Station renovations and improvements may also benefit from these funds as well as the redesign of the West Third Streetscape where Oak trees had to be removed in late 2020.
Sundquist said the city is partnering with the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation to hold four listening sessions across the city to gather community input on the plan. The Master Plan should be available for the public to view on the city’s website at jamestownny.gov. We’ll have more on this story in Wednesday’s newscast.
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