LYNN — City Council members along with around 20 women and children from the non-profit Latina Center MARIA voiced their opinions on how to spend the nearly $20 million dollars in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding coming to the city this fall at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
When Mayor Jared Nicholson walked to the podium in the City Council Chambers, he said that with applications for the second, and final, wave ARPA funding open until Oct. 17, the city expects to review a lot of applications, many of which, eligible or not, may not receive funding. Nicholson also said that fund allocation will mostly align with the public’s priorities, set forth through community engagement initiatives.
“We will receive, unfortunately, more applications than we can fund, so there’s going to be applications that are eligible, that could be a great idea, but that just don’t make as much of an opportunity for funding,” Nicholson said. “Topics like food security, workforce development, housing are all times where we’ve been hard at work.”
Following Nicholson’s update, Ward 1 Councilor Wayne Lozzi asked Nicholson if the city planned to use ARPA funds to develop renewable energy infrastructure.
“Sustainability projects are very important so we can enter some kind of a project to bring returns to the city, enable future funding, like any kind of renewable energy,” Lozzi said. “I’m a very big proponent of renewable energy and how sustainable that would be if we could spend some of this ARPA money for a sustainable project that will generate revenue for the city, I think it’s a no-brainer. I just want to urge you to really look at that, Mr. Mayor.”
In response to Lozzi’s question, Nicholson said that his office has been working with the city’s state delegation to secure other forms of funding for sustainable infrastructure and that projects of that sort are under consideration for ARPA funding as well.
When Councilor-at-Large Brian LaPierre asked Nicholson if the city planned to allocate ARPA funds toward establishing electric vehicle charging stations in Lynn, Nicholson responded that the city is already working with the National Grid to bring electric vehicle charging stations to life in the city.
“I agree that we should be working on bringing electric vehicle charging stations to the city, and we actually do have a reference in place, we’re working with the National Grid to bring that to life,” Nicholson said.
When Nicholson left the Council Chambers, around 20 women from the Latina Center de MARIAs, all dressed in bright blue and pink shirts, followed him into the hall to plead their case, one by one, for receiving one million dollars in ARPA funding to hire English teachers for their organization, and establish a center to teach Hispanic students and mothers English. The organization applied for the first round of ARPA funding this spring, but did not receive approval.
Latina Center MARIA Founder and Executive director Magalie Torres-Rowe said that if Latina mothers could learn English, and better connect with teachers and principals, it would help to alleviate problems in the school system.
“If we want to prevent dropouts, we have to teach the mothers English,” Torres-Rowe said. “When mothers know English, in the process of the American education system, we don’t have problems. We don’t have guns, we don’t have violence in the street […] all of my students get As and Bs, but if they don’t speak English, how will they talk to their teachers, how will they succeed? I beg you, Mr. Mayor, please.”
The Latina activists stopped to shake Nicholson’s hand, some asking to take photographs with him before they left. Nicholson said that he appreciated the work that the non-profit does in the city, and that he encourages the group to apply again.
“We really appreciate them turning out and all the work that they do in the city, and definitely encourage them to apply. And if they have any questions about the application, our team can offer assistance on filling it out,” Nicholson said.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected]
