The Pittsfield City Council granted final approval on Tuesday, April 9th for the expansion of a sewer main servicing Herman Melville’s Arrowhead at 780 Holmes Road, following a unanimous vote during last week’s Finance Committee meeting. $650,000 was approved to be allocated from the Sewer Enterprise Fund to finance a sewer line extension.
The decision came after Leslie Herzberg, director of the Berkshire County Historical Society, warned the Committee of the failing sewer systems urgent need for a replacement. Former City Council member Karen Kalinowski expressed concern about potential increases in sewer bills and taxes for residents. She suggested utilizing leftover American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA funds to cover the project costs. Said Malinowski to the Committee, “We are borrowing money that the taxpayers have to pay back…Councilor Warren did bring up, ‘is there other funding?’ What wasn’t brought up was the ARPA funding. Because you guys found out in one of the earlier meetings during the ARPA update that there was $750,000…Why aren’t we using this? We gave a lot of this money to our nonprofits…You sit there and you know, I can, I can feel sorry for people but this is affecting our taxpayers. You have to think about this, and go back and say, hey, is there other funding we can use?”
Kalinowski noted that some ARPA funds allocated to a non profit fundraiser were being redirected for infrastructure projects by the mayor. Mayor Peter Marchetti confirmed approximately $40,000 remaining in ARPA funds and stated ongoing discussions with nonprofits regarding additional funding opportunities. Said Marchetti, “The ARPA money is is $40,000. There is a conversation with nonprofits that, as we all know, if ARPA monies are not spent in the time frame that they need to be spent, those funds get returned to the federal government. So in an effort to ensure that those funds do not go back to the federal government and the City of Pittsfield gets all the benefit for it, the ARPA task force is working with the nonprofits to see where we will meet our goals and where we won’t.”
Responding to Mayor Marchetti, Councilor Kathy Amuso asked “Do you see any alternative monies coming in that we could use on this project?” Mayor Marchetti answered “At the current time? No.”
Councilor Kenneth Warren supported Kalinowski’s proposal to utilize excess funds to alleviate the tax burden on residents. “I’m going to vote on this and approve it, but I just hope that the City makes every effort it can to use those excess funds that have been left there and haven’t been used for various amounts of years.”
Despite Councilor Matthew Wrinn’s opposition, the council unanimously approved the sewer extension project.
