After earmarking  $7 million of the Warwick’s American Rescue Act funds to the Warwick Sewer Authority for infrastructure particularly for the Bayside Sewer Project,  $3 million set aside for water infrastructure, $10.6 million dedicated towards loss revenue in 2021 and 2022 and another $800,000 going towards a broadband initiative, the city still has about $18 million left to spend.

The question is, how will the City spend the money? 

Mayor Frank Picozzi last week said the remaining funds would be put into the budget this year as undesignated revenue. 

“We can’t spend funds without going through the budgetary process,” he said. 

He explained that in order to use the funds they need to have it in the budget as revenue and then go through the normal process, which includes presenting the plan to the Council for approval. 

“Even if we had the money available to us if we didn’t show it as revenue we wouldn’t be able to use it,” said Picozzi. 

Picozzi said the administration is drafting a capital improvement plan, something he said is supposed to be done every year to help gauge the needs of the different departments. 

He said that once the administration has department requests they will assess how to allocate funds. 

“We're going to come up with a plan for it,” said Picozzi.

Picozzi also said that he is still hopeful that the City will receive a earmarked grant from Congress for the Conimicut Lighthouse. He said that if the grant isn’t secured he hopes to use some of the funds to restore it. 

Regardless, Picozzi pointed to infrastructure particularly for water and sewer infrastructure as major needs for the City. 

“That's where we're most deficient,” said Picozzi. 

As Picozzi put it, if they aren’t able to address infrastructure concerns with the ARPA funds then when will they be able to. 

“If we don’t attack our infrastructure with this opportunity when in the future can you,” said Picozzi. 

As he announced a few months ago Picozzi said he intents to allocate $200,000 to each ward with the hope that council members will solicit input from their individual constituents on how to spend the funds. 

“They are going to go to neighborhood meetings and things like that. The public input will be that way it will be direct,” said Picozzi. 

Picozzi said that the goal is to spend the funds on small projects that are never in the budget and can never get done. 

Some of the examples that he pointed to are things like park benches that are destroyed, and flag poles that are rotted out. Ward projects

While the process for the Ward projects hasn’t been finalized, Ward 9 Councilman Vincent Gebhart said he has already thought about how he plans on soliciting feedback from the community. 

“To me, effective outreach is about meeting people where they are and acknowledging that not everyone is in the same place at the same time,” said Gebhart. “In order to solicit feedback with equity and inclusion in mind and to focus on getting the highest quality input from the most number of people my strategy will be to solicit feedback across the number of channels.”

Picozzi in an interview last week said he is leaving it in the hands of the City Council to decide on the process. He said the plan is to have the funds in the budget come July 1. 

“I hope they work on it soon because that money will be in the budget this coming year and we want to get the projects done,” said Picozzi. 

Picozzi pointed out that things take longer to complete than normally due to the pandemic. 

“We want to move as quickly as possible,” said Picozzi. 

Gebhart said that one of the ways he plans on seeking input from his Ward is by creating discussion opportunities at different community events. 

“In April I will be holding an Easter egg hunt,” said Gebhart. “Given that there will be many parents, grandparents, and kids there I will have a table set up to explain the options and gather suggestions.”

Gebhart has used electronic surveys distributed by email and social media to get a pulse on how the community feels about different issues and projects like the proposed Open Space Bond and the building of two new high schools. He said he plans on making that a component of his outreach as well. 

“I think the other opportunity that has not been well utilized so far at the municipal level is to create engaging public forums using technologies like zoom,” said Gebhart. “ Most of the municipal zooms I have been to are very flat, provide a lousy experience for the remote participants, and really don't make any effort to solicit input or feedback.  This is something that my experience in the private sector brings to the table. Throughout the pandemic we have gotten really really good at doing this effectively.” 

Gebhart said that anyone who has any ideas can contact him via his website.