The Town of Braintree wants to hear from the public about ideas for how to use Braintree's allocation of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Local and County funding. We will be setting aside time during our regularly scheduled selectboard meeting on September 7th to hear your idea. The meeting will be held at the Braintree Town Office at 6pm on the 7th, and the ARPA listening session will take place immediately after the meeting is called to order.
If you plan to attend the meeting to listen or offer your ideas, please take some time to review background information about the ARPA funding, including the requirements for spending the funds and eligible projects. Braintree's total allocation of funding will be $357,216.59.
Recipients may use these funds to:
- Support public health expenditures, by, for example, funding COVID-19 mitigation efforts, medical expenses, behavioral healthcare, and certain public health and safety staff
- Address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, including economic harms to workers, households, small businesses, impacted industries, and the public sector
- Replace lost public sector revenue, using this funding to provide government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue experienced due to the pandemic
- Provide premium pay for essential workers, offering additional support to those who have and will bear the greatest health risks because of their service in critical infrastructure sectors
- Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure, making necessary investments to improve access to clean drinking water, support vital wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and to expand access to broadband internet
Within these overall categories, recipients have broad flexibility to decide how best to use this funding to meet the needs of their communities.
Additional information about the funding and allocations is available here: https://finance.vermont.gov/covid-19-guidance
We look forward to hearing from you on September 7th at 6pm. Those who wish to attend the meeting virtually may call 802-210-4472, or click https://meetings.dialpad.com/room/braintreesbmotoole.