DARIEN — Town officials are reviving an advisory committee to redistribute emergency grant funds just over a year after the committee last met.
In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act provided $350 billion in federal emergency grants to state and local governments during the pandemic.
Darien’s ARPA advisory committee was created to determine how grant funds would be used to meet the town’s needs, creating an allocation plan in March 2022 that included updating storm drainage piping, repairing bridges and other town priorities totaling $6.4 million.
Since then, town administrator Kate Buch said it has become clear ARPA funds alone may not be sufficient for larger appropriations and some projects may not be completed by the necessary timeline.
During the April 18 Board of Selectmen meeting, Buch recommended bringing back the committee to reallocate as much as $2.5 million in unused funds from some of those projects. However, Buch said it’s still unknown which projects the money would move from and that would be decided by committee.
“Because some of the allocations that we think are going to go unused are large, I wanted you to consider reactivating the ARPA committee for the recommendations on that allocation to the Board of Finance and to this board,” she said.
The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved bringing back the committee. First Selectman Monica McNally agreed with Buch that it made sense given the large amount of money to be redistributed and big decisions that would have to be made.
Members of the ARPA advisory committee include representatives from the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, two RTM committees and the Chamber of Commerce, providing what Buch called “a broad look at how best to reallocate those funds.”
After the year-long break and at least one move out of town, several of the committee’s original members will need to be replaced.
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