American Rescue Plan Act Funds Distribution

The Town of Dartmouth will spend over just under 10 million dollars through the American Rescue Plan Act to the direct benefit of residents.

In 2021 the town received an estimated $9,341,589 in ARPA funding directly from the federal government. In 2022, the town allocated $4,163,886 of the funding to parks and recreation, schools and the Department of Public Works. This left $5,177,703 for fiscal year 2024.

The money can only be spent on four main goals: replacing public sector revenue loss; supporting public health responses; mitigating negative economic impacts of the pandemic; and making investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

The Town allocated $460,000 to renovate the pickle ball, tennis and basketball courts at Dartmouth Regional Park and Trails, located at 443 Old Fall River Road. That project was completed in October 2023.

Another recreation minded project funded in 2022 was designing and engineering a recreation center for the Town. That project received $1,192,000 in ARPA funding.

Dartmouth also allocated $330,000 to upgrade the Slocum Road basketball courts into four Pickleball Courts and a basketball court. And $290,000 to purchase property on Russells Mills Road. Both of those projects were completed in 2023.

Other projects include upgrades to the Town’s website, which were completed in February 2023, improvements to Dartmouth High School’s tennis courts and HVAC upgrades in the public schools.

Within the ARPA funds budget in 2023, $3.5 million was allocated for treatment plant and system upgrades for disinfection of by-products; $582,912 for UV bulbs and starter; $300,000 for emergency generators at four stations; $175,000 is for comprehensive sludge handling and composting evaluation; $250,000 for infiltration remediation; and $369,791 for capital project overages contingencies.

By making capital improvements to waste-water treatment with federally allocated funds, the Town hopes to keep resident’s water and sewer rates constant.

To see more graphs and a better look at the pie charts in this post, check out Charts to the right.