MANSFIELD — Mayor Jodie Perry offered Mansfield City Council a couple of meetings to consider her plans to spend $2,295,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars — most of it related to improvements in and around parks.
But with the clock ticking on the end-of-year ARPA deadlines, lawmakers chose not to wait Tuesday night, opting instead to approve all of the ideas.
Perry divided her requests into two groups.
The first was for $510,000 for parks projects that could still be started and completed by the end of the year, a request she asked council to approve Tuesday.
The second request was for $1,785,000 for a group of other projects, including $160,000 for the first tornado warning signs in the 216-year-old city’s history. Those proposals were scheduled for a vote Oct. 15.
Even with those approvals, Perry also told lawmakers there is still around $600,000 remaining from the city’s ARPA funds that must be appropriated by the Dec. 31 deadline. Any work funded by the federal money must by complete by the end of 2026.
“So we will certainly be coming back to you,” Perry said.
At-large Councilman David Falquette recommended moving ahead with all of Perry’s proposed plans on the agenda Tuesday.
“I am very much aware that we have to be in contract by the end of 2024 and because these are all round numbers and very good estimates, there may be some that are a little high …. maybe they’re a little low. But that all has to be decided by the end of the year,” Falquette said.
He noted some of the money allocated for previous projects has come back due to those projects not going forward or not costing as much as estimated.
Should estimates again be too high, “We need to get that back as soon as possible so we can spend it by the end of the year. That’s a hard deadline so far,” he said.
Here is a look at the projects City Council approved Tuesday:
— $135,000 for sandstone pillar restorations at the entrance to South Park, as well as work on the bridge and bath house at Liberty Park.
— $375,000 for various park improvement projects, which Perry described as “recreation, security, lighting and maintenance.” Some of the roofs at North Lake Park need to be replaced and the basketball court refinished.
“We’re talking about upgrading to LED lighting (in the parks). Security has been an ongoing conversation that we’re having in the parks. There is also some other equipment and then more general maintenance to the parks.” the mayor said.
“Our parks team has been working and has (price) quotes,” she said, efforts that would also involve parking lot and park road paving
— $200,000 for a new pedestrian bridge at Middle Park that would reconnect the park with Park Avenue West and again link the park to North Lake and South parks.
— $750,000 for the design of a waterline looping and sanitary system at the industrial park near Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport.
“This would allow us further expansion out at the airport Industrial Park. When we’re talking about manufacturing jobs … we’re talking about distribution … things out at the airport, that is where the the future growth for those types of business is going to be.
“We have strong utilities out there, but they do not loop,” the mayor said. “That would really allow us to have better continuity and increased service is the best way to say it.
Looping in a water distribution system creates multiple pathways for water to flow from the source to the consumer. This looping pattern helps keep water moving, which reduces stagnation and also increases firefighting capacity.
— $575,000 for sidewalk and other improvements at King Street Park and Johns Park. “These (sidewalks) would be larger than just a four-foot sidewalk. They would be more like the multi-use trails,” Perry said.
“We have applied for a grant for King Street Park, as well, to replace playground equipment. We’re working on potentially replacing the pavilion there and we think maybe potentially, as part of this, we can also get a half-court basketball court put back there,” the mayor said.
She said the current court is asphalt. “It’s got weeds growing in it, so it’s not really very playable now,” she said.
— $160,000 for four tornado sirens in the City of Mansfield, which has never had them before. The work would be done in conjunction with the Richland County Emergency Management Agency, which oversees sirens throughout the rest of the county.
“Tornado sirens have been something that has been talked about for quite a while. Whenever there’s storms in the spring, we get calls and comments (from citizens) and the City of Mansfield does not have tornado sirens.
“This money would allow us to partner with the county EMA to start installing sirens in the city. We see that as a really good partnership with the county EMA, providing extra safety and alert to alerts to our citizens.
“We’ve had some pretty bad storms the last few years, so we think this is a good step forward,” the mayor said.
— $75,000 toward the purchase of a new command vehicle for the Mansfield Police Department, using ARPA funds previously allocated for other law enforcement projects that were not completely used. The mayor said MPD leaders would be back before council with a complete proposal for the vehicle.
— $25,000 for an “electrification analysis” that would hire a consultant to examine the city’s vehicle fleet with an eye toward future conversion to electric vehicles.
“This will allow us to say, ‘What is possible? What would we have to do to start to switch to that?’ There’s grant money and things that are coming down the pipe that we think we can go for.
“But it does us no good to buy a car that we can’t charge. So we need to make sure that we would be ready,” the mayor said.
