County on our ARPA monies

Posted on July 12, 2021 | Comments Off on County on our ARPA monies

This from the County Commissioners. It is not clear to me how much they intend to administer our ARPA monies, versus just paying us our ARPA monies. Reading the 2024 and 2026 dates causes me some concern about their planned level and length of involvement.

The County of Presidents CLERK: WALTER F. TIMILTY July 12, 2021 COMMONWEAL TH OF MASSACHUSETTS COUNTY OF NORFOLK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS JOSEPH P. SHEA, CHAIRMAN, QUINCY PETER H. COLLINS, MIL TON RICHARD R. STAITI, CANTON Dear Norfolk County Executive, TRUSTEES OF NORFOLK COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL We are pleased to announce that on July 7, 2021, the Norfolk County Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the funds associated with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). This action effectively allows the County Treasurer to apply for these federal funds and to have the County Commissioners administer the funds on behalf of the Norfolk County Communities. Norfolk County is expected to receive a total of approximately $13 7 Million over the life of this grant. The County Director is working to develop a program for communities to make application and receive awards from this grant. The Norfolk County Commissioners firmly believe that working with other counties will benefit our shared mission to provide direct support to the communities we service. On July 1, 2021, the County Commissioners participated in a tri-county meeting with the Plymouth and Bristol County Commissioners to exchange ideas and gain a common knowledge of grant administration to provide more efficient and cost effective grant management for the betterment of our respective counties. During this meeting, Plymouth County offered detai ls of the plan they developed to manage distribution of CARES act funds. The Plymouth County model proposes to fund the administration costs of the ARP A program via interest gained from the federal grant funds held by the County Treasurer until released to the respective cities and towns. The goal of this plan is to have all available grant funds flow directly to the communities. As the County Treasurer prepares to make application for funds to the United States Treasury, we will commence our program development to prepare a similar plan to administer these funds according to the Interim Final Rule guidelines. This process will take time. We ask each community to patiently work with us toward building a successful program. Our approach will include the following planned steps; ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES 614 HIGH STREET SUITE 201 P.O. BOX 310 DEDHAM, MA 02027-0310 TEL: (781) 461-6105 FAX: (781) 326-6480 EMAIL: info@norfolkcounty.org WEBSITE: www.norfolkcounty.org SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF: AVON, BELLINGHAM, BRAINTREE, BROOKLINE, CANTON, COHASSET, DEDHAM. DOVER, FOXBOROUGH, FRANKLIN, HOLBROOK, MEDFIELD. MEDWAY, MILLIS, MILTON, NEEDHAM, NORFOLK, NORWOOD, PLAINVILLE, QUINCY, RANDOLPH, SHARON, STOUGHTON, WALPOLE, WELLESLEY, WESTWOOD, WEYMOUTH, WRENTHAM ~75C A. Within the next 30 days Conduct a virtual meeting with Town executives and Advisory Board members. The agenda will include hearing from community leaders about specific needs, ideas, and any questions concerning program management. B. Within the next 45 days Conduct a separate virtual meeting with Norfolk County Finance Committee members to similarly address plan management and fund management. We understand the County communities desire to secure these funds as soon as possible. This need, however, should be coupled with the understanding that deliberate program development and sound management will allow us to handle our communities grant needs until December 31, 2024 when this grant ends (period of performance through December 31, 2026). Our main goal is to provide the Norfolk County communities with exceptional service to manage these funds with a program designed to optimize resources and expedite payments while adhering to the grant guidelines. We are very excited for this opportunity to share these resources and collaborate with each community to help make all our Norfolk County communities stronger for years to come. Peter H. Collins County Commissioner Joseph P. Shea Chairman Richard R. Staiti County Commissioner
This entry was posted in Budgets, Federal Government, Financial and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.