Mental health funding, transportation, and housing topped concerns at the final public input session on Jamestown’s plan to spend $28 million in American Rescue Plan Recovery Funds. Fifty people attended the last session at Emmanuel Baptist Church.
Concerns that not enough funding was being provided for mental health and addiction services were raised by several speakers. Resident Karen Neil said the city is drowning in a mental health crisis and questioned the usefulness of the proposed funding plan, “You know, this sounds good? But I don’t see that it’s going to actually do something. If you can’t work the health portion of it, the economic portion of it, the society portion of it, the cultural portion of it. You can’t work them all together. It’s a waste of time. Somebody makes some money over here and doesn’t care about that one over there. What do we do in the meantime?”
Mayor Eddie Sundquist responded, acknowledging there were a lot of gaps and that he had been in discussions with the Chautauqua County Mental Hygiene Department about how to handle these issues.
Several speakers brought up the issue of transportation including this woman who did not identify herself, “You can have all the great things downtown or at the arena or even out at the northside but if they can’t get there. What’s cab fare? One way? It’s like, if you have no money, even if the event you want to go to is free, you can’t get there. So if there was a way to support CARTS, maybe free passes for people over a certain age or under a certain age.”
Sundquist said transportation wasn’t currently included in the plan but that the city has been in discussions with CARTS, which is run by the county, to expand services.
Another suggestion made several times was to designate the $1.5 million in housing funds toward specific areas. Pastor Chloe Smith asked if it could directed toward those with low-income and people of color, “How can all these millions and millions of dollars keep processing through the land, but not one person that I know has seen any of it? I’m so sick of that. How do I know that there’s going to be equity and equality in the distribution of these $28 million?”
Sundquist said these concerns are why the listening sessions were held so that the city could get feedback and make changes to the plan. He anticipates it’ll be about a month before City Council makes any decisions on how the money will be allocated.
The funding must be committed by 2024 and spent by 2026 or returned back to the Treasury Department.
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