EAST PROVIDENCE — The City Council, in a somewhat rare step at its meeting on Tuesday night, Aug. 15, unanimously gave the first of two necessary approvals to 11 spending ordinances appropriating some of the city's remaining $14 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds towards a host of infrastructure/capital improvement projects.

As follows, the projects and associated monies approved by 5-0 voice votes of the Council were:

• Up to $450,000 to update road (ground surface) landscape and public access to the boat ramps, lighting and parking for trailers at Bold Point Park and John Lewis Waterfront Park.
• Up to $50,000 for a citywide utility box art project.
• Up to $1,000,000 for funding of the Crescent Park Concession Project and Event Tent Project.
• Up to $1,000,000 for renovations of the former Oldham School building on Bullocks Point Avenue.
• Up to $550,000 to replace the walking track at Pierce Memorial Stadium.
• Up to $550,000 for placemaking (decorative signage) throughout the city.
• Up to $200,000 for a splash pad at an appropriate location in Riverside.
• Up to $450,000 for improvements to Townie Pride Park (formerly called Jones Pond behind Pierce Stadium).
• Up to $5,000,000 for needed improvements to the infrastructure of sewers and drains citywide.
• Up to $400,000 to the planning department for the storefront improvement program.
• Up to $500,000 for adaptive playground equipment for the city’s special needs population at multiple locations.

The discussion included a couple of curt exchanges between the members and Director of Administration for Mayor Bob DaSilva, Napoleon Gonsalves.

At one point during the roll call of the ordinances by recently hired City Clerk Jill Seppa, Gonsalves interjected opposition to the Council's proceedings.

Gonsalves said, "by locking up, encumbering our funds now, (the Council) will hinder the administration in the future."

He said although the mayor and the department directors considered each of the projects worthwhile, by appropriating the funds it is "messing up the (administration's) timeline, making us less efficient...It gives us agita...gives us less flexibility."

Earlier in the meeting when the subject of ARPA money was briefly broached, Ward 4 Councilor Rick Lawson and Gonsalves engaged in a terse back-and-forth after the latter read into the record a letter written by DaSilva expressing the mayor's opposition to the maneuver.

"Let me just say I've been trying to engage you guys since I took office," said Lawson, who assumed his seat in January of this year. "I've had ARPA funds on the agenda at least once a month. And nothing. You guys made it clear you wanted all the money for (the mayor's) community center. This is our method of letting you know these are the projects we'd like to see funded...Now that we're making a move all of a sudden you guys are willing to talk."

Ward 2 Councilor Anna Sousa and Ward 3 Councilor Frank Fogarty, who introduced the $5 million earmark for sewer and drain repairs, each expressed their desire to address those matters rather than others of lesser necessity like the community center.

Fogarty, noting the city has until December 31, 2024 to obligate the funds and until December 31, 2026 to spend them, read the following remarks from a prepared statement, "So investing in these infrastructure needs will ease the burden on our residents who have been dealing with this for many years. These funds would allow the administration to address the highest priorities that we haven't budgeted for and to continue those started with past bonds, grants and allocated state funds."

Added Sousa, referencing the continuing problems with drainage throughout the city due to Climate Change and differing weather patterns, "We're a growing city that has a lot of development...The question I always go back to is can our infrastructure handle all of this development that is happening in our city? And for that to be able to happen we need to make sure we have funding in place and that we have good working equipment and facilities that can take on these things."

The process for the ordinances to become law requires not only a second affirmative vote by the majority, but also a public hearing, both of which are expected to take place when the Council next meets on Tuesday, Aug. 29.