PORTSMOUTH — The City Council voted to approve spending $1.9 million in federal monies on a variety of city projects, including upgrades to security and the layout of Community Campus.
The council approved $1.5 million of the American Rescue Plan Act funds to be spent on what City Manager Karen Conard described as “nonprofit tenant space realignment and improvements” at Community Campus.
The monies, she said in a memo to the council, will pay to address “critical building needs for all tenants that include the provision of security and access solutions unique to each tenant and maximization of organizational flow, space planning and energy efficiency.”
The Community Campus expenditure was by far the biggest approved by the council at a recent meeting.
The council also unanimously approved spending $250,000 in ARPA funds “for implementation of recommendations included in the Community Health Needs Assessment Recommendations,” Conard said.
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The council’s vote also authorized spending $80,000 from the federal funds to buy an electric vehicle to be used as “a pop-up library,” Conard said.
The vehicle will “offer mobile library resources for community outreach, at parks, centers and local events,” Conard said.
The $80,000 will cover the “acquisition, operation and maintenance” of the vehicle for two years, Conard said.
In terms of Community Campus, Recreation Director Todd Henley said the improvements are focused on better using the space for the four nonprofits — and the Recreation Department — which are located in the facility.
The four nonprofits are Seacoast Community School, Krempels Brain Injury Center, Child Advocacy Center, and Seacoast Outright, he said.
The building will also be the future home of the Robert J. Lister Academy, Portsmouth’s alternative high school.
Example of improvements include “moving the front desk to provide more visibility to who’s entering the building,” Henley said, and “creating secure suite access points for the child-care wings.”
The redesign plans call for consolidating the Community School space into “two locked down wing areas,” he said.
Read More: Here’s how Portsmouth spends $1.9M in American Rescue Plan Act funds