The Chautauqua Region Community Foundation made recommendations to Jamestown City Council on how the City should proceed forward on spending $28 million in American Rescue Plan monies based on input received from the public.
The CRCF helped facilitate four public input sessions held this summer by the city on the draft master plan. Their report said 118 people attended those sessions with 8 responses received by email or telephone.
CRCF Community Impact Officer Liz Jones said four categories received the most engagement from people at the listening sessions, with housing stability and neighborhood revitalization having the most feedback, “And those could range from home improvement programs, the receivership program that was given as a sample program in the draft master plan, to the increased concern around when the eviction moratorium would be lifted, and housing insecurity and homelessness needs across the community.”
Economic and workforce development; resident health and well-being, and recreation and youth activities were the other categories receiving the most engagement.
Jones said equity was a cross-cutting theme across all discussions, “Equity should be the primary focus when considering how proposed programs or projects would impact all populations of our community, especially populations that have been historically under-served or marginalized. This includes people of color, residents living in poverty, people with disabilities, and older adults.”
Other themes across discussions included prioritizing community need and sustainability.
Community Foundation Executive Director Tory Irgang presented six recommendations based on the input sessions including that the spending of the federal monies should have personnel, whether internal or contracted, to oversee and report out on the process. Irgang said another recommendation was for the city to consider how to use the dollars to encourage new small businesses and increase the number of minority- women-owned business enterprises, “Since neighborhoods was probably the most discussed topic at any of the sessions, and looking at what it would take to stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods, you need people to do the work. And our city, while it has many talented people, we would not have enough resources to do all of the work that needs to be done in a really compacted time frame.”
The report recommended the city utilize community-based organizations to expand the scope of projects possible and to also use those groups to help run programs that expand the city’s reach.
Irgang said projects should be prioritized in how they can leverage the ARP funding with other funding sources in the community including philanthropic or Foundation dollars, “Many of the foundations are already investing in things that are able to do a slice, but perhaps with ARP funding they could be taken to greater scale. Along the same lines, we ask that you leverage the experience of community based organizations who have already learned and may have those lessons learned to share in doing more of the work.”
The last recommendation was that equity be considered for all aspects of the funding.
Council member at large Kim Ecklund said sustainability was one thing she’s heard repeatedly from the community, departments, and businesses, “It’s great to have a windfall, but if we’re going to add 26 miles of park improvements or whatever the case may be, I gotta add staff. One doesn’t come hand-in-hand without the other and that’s the general concern. It’s great to do these windfall things and we have plenty of things this city has neglected.”
Ecklund said the infrastructure of City Hall, fire station buildings, and other structures is very important when it comes to sustainability as well.
The report by the CRCF will be made available for the public to review on the city’s website at jamestownny.gov.
Council has not yet received a resolution to review on the proposed projects to be funded by ARP monies.
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