A large group of Northborough residents, business owners, and community leaders gathered on March 23 at a forum to generate ideas on what they felt should be priorities for the $4 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding the town will receive this year. The majority of ideas generated throughout the evening strongly focused on support for mental health and social services, small business and economic development, and educational demands.
The goal of the ARPA funds is to support communities in crisis, accelerate recovery and build a bridge toward economic development. The U.S. Treasury urges “local governments to engage their constituents and communities in developing plans to use these payments.”
At the March 14th Board of Selectmen meeting, Town Administrator John Coderre presented a recommendation for allocation of the first $2.2M of the ARPA funding, including $800,000 for a new fire engine and $400,000 for a highway garage tight tank project. The Board received several emails and public comments from residents who raised concerns about the proposed budget and the town’s ARPA recommendation process—which did not include engagement of residents, local business owners or non-profit leaders. In his presentation, Administrator Coderre indicated that the town already had input from residents due to the Master Plan surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic.
After some deliberation, the Board voted to pass a few, time-sensitive items in the proposed budget, including repairs to the Proctor School roof, a new program called Be Well Northborough, Affordable Housing, Assabet Park fencing and additional pickleball court expenses incurred due to pandemic pricing. All other budget items were held for discussion until Monday, March 28th.
Following that meeting, the Northborough Guide, led by founder, Marilé Borden, began the process of coordinating the community forum where local constituents were invited to share needs and ideas. Northborough resident John Morse facilitated the evening and among the attendees were local business owners, Selectmen, town committee members, community group leaders, and engaged citizens.
Borden said the goal was to “find out what our needs and priorities are after the pandemic” and that “it is critical the community be involved in these conversations.”
“It’s simply to ensure that our town is looking at all the possibilities and weighing which ones will eventually have the most impact,” she said.
In the first phase of the forum, attendees were invited to generate ideas within eight focus categories including: small business, job creation and economic development; acute and mental health; social services; infrastructure; recreation and conservation; education and child development; and capital plan expenditures. The second phase gave attendees the chance to ask questions, support ideas or point out potential pitfalls. Resident Mitch Cohen provided clarity on the rules and possible uses of ARPA funding. He explained that, because Northborough’s allotment is under $10M, the town had a good deal of freedom in how to appropriate the money. The biggest limitation is that the funds cannot be used for an expense that would carry on beyond 2026—such as a salaried position—without an explicit plan for how to fund that expense when the ARPA funding is complete. Cohen also outlined the time frame for ARPA, which states that funds must be allocated by the end of 2024 and utilized by the end of 2026.
At the end of the forum, Mr. Morse introduced the “summation activitiy” in which he invited attendees to take three blank sticky notes and place one on each of the three focus areas that they believed should be the town should prioritize.
One need that was mentioned often was the need to support the current mental health crisis which has arisen, particularly among children and teenagers, as a result of the pandemic.
“We need a commitment to programming that isn’t building related,” said one participant. “Those behavioral and mental health issues at the elementary level are going to become middle school issues, then become high school issues, and then town people issues.”
It was also suggested that the town needs to do more to check in with local business owners to see how they are faring post-pandemic and with current inflation rates. A few residents supported the idea of funding an Economic Development initiative to assess opportunities for economic growth and assist local businesses.
A member of the Northborough Youth and Family Services (NYFS) Committee spoke about some of the social welfare needs of the community. She noted that the Food Pantry has the highest rate of utilization ever and that the Northborough Helping Hands organization has two supply sheds which are nearly empty due to surgeries that were delayed due to Covid. She stated that NYFS has seen an increased need for case management, an increase in referral services, and more families with complex needs—including eight homeless families in town, one of which includes children. Northborough currently has one full time and two part time staff serving these needs, while neighboring Southborough, a town with 2/3 the population, has five staff members including licensed mental health professionals.
All of these ideas and priorities will be made available to the Board of Selectmen before their meeting on March 28.
Morse concluded the evening by saying thank you to all participants for their ideas.
“There is a lot of political division out there in the world, but this felt really great,” he said.
The full session can be viewed online.
Additional ideas or comments can be emailed to the Board of Selectmen at selectmen@town.northborough.ma.us.
SUMMARY OF INFORMATION, IDEAS, AND INFORMATION
- Support the many volunteer groups and agencies which support the needs of the town.
- The food pantry has its highest use rate ever.
- Northborough Helping Hands Association has a high level of requests for medical equipment loans due to elective surgeries all happening at once.
- There are 8 homeless families with needs.
- The Town Benevolent Fund helps families in need and extra funding is important.
- Community Meals grab & go funds will be depleted in May. $620/week for 120-130 meals/week provided.
- More activity scholarships to participate in activities, sports, camps.
- Seniors need support to get information and opportunities.
- Purchase gift cards from local businesses to give to families in need.
- Programming needs for Senior Center including memory care unit.
- Northborough Recreation growth to meet demand of families and children.
- Cultural Council to bring programs and events.
- Mental health needs in children have increased. In addition to supporting the needs of the kids, provide a support group for parents and caretakers.
- Family Youth Services has 1 full time, 2 part time employees for a town of over 14,000. Northborough has the least amount of people in this department compared to neighboring towns. Funding a short-term grant writer would allow us to obtain funds to support needs.
- The Be Well Northborough initiative is spread out over an umbrella to work on bringing the community together.
- Improve Diversity and inclusion efforts.
- Consultant firm to integrate polices for Diversity & Inclusion as recommended by the committee
- Address education loss of skills, literacy; and school staffing shortages including nurses, tutors, special educators, teachers.
- Funding for arts and music programming at elementary schools.
- Northborough Education Foundation and PTOs haven’t been able to fundraise as usual to supplement and support programs, assist with needed supplies.
- Community garden to provide fresh produce to food pantry and community.
- Downtown improvements including parking.
- Master Plan Implementation Plan priority kick start, including beautification of downtown, improved walkability.
- Plant more trees.
- Purchase land to facilitate economic development.
- Dog park, mixed used trails, rail trail.
- Street lights, more crosswalk lights.
- Connect the BWALT bike/recreation trail through Northborugh. The trail is currently being worked on in Westborough ending at the Northborough town line where it becomes a “pencil line” and is then picked up again in other towns such as Boylston and Hudson.
- Address climate emergency: increase municipal use of solar, EB charging stations, (look at available grants to offset costs). Electric vehicles for police department, building inspector.
- Swap shop for recycling purposes.
- Town Dump.
- Better ventilation of public schools, offices, buildings.
- Plan/preparation for a future pandemic, public health emergency including stockpiling supplies.
- Small business grants to keep businesses in town, which ultimately helps keep property taxes down.
- Economic Development Committee formation to kick start other initiatives.
- Teen center to occupy empty store fronts; use funding to purchase recreation items like canoes, snowshoes, sports equipment.
- Evaluation of small businesses to assess short- and long-term challenges, staffing issues.
- Job search/job growth programs.
- Help businesses with advertising, marketing, employee training, grants for outdoor seating to motivate customers, retain employees.
- Funding incentive bonuses for those who take jobs with local, independent businesses
- Gift card matching programs
- Rent/Mortgage relief for businesses who are struggling
- Businesses need help with long term projections based on COVID impacts: inflation, staff shortages, triple increase of cost of goods .
- Co-working space
- White Cliffs has serious potential to refurbish into possible community center for teens and seniors, artisans, co-office area.
Town’s recommendation for allocation of initial ARPA funds.
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