Candidates describe Bangor’s pandemic aid funding course of as ‘a cage combat’
As Bangor metropolis councilors work by way of the 60 requests for pandemic aid funding, some candidates are pissed off with the town’s decision-making course of and timeline.
Bangor has been working to dole out the greater than $20 million in federal pandemic aid funding after Congress handed the American Rescue Plan Act. Native organizations have been first in a position to apply for a bit of the funding in April, practically two years after the town started receiving the one-time pot in Could 2021.
These purposes for funding then went by way of a evaluation and scoring course of by a volunteer panel overseen by the Coronary heart of Maine United Method.
Now, greater than three years after the beginning of the pandemic, native organizations are simply starting to study if they’ve been chosen to obtain a portion of Bangor’s pandemic aid funding. Candidates who’ve been denied say the council’s drawn out course of defeats the aim of the fund’s intent and will have damage the group.
Betsy Lundy, government director of the Downtown Bangor Partnership, mentioned she felt just like the evaluation and scoring course of executed by an exterior physique “appeared to pit a bunch of nonprofits in opposition to each other in a cage combat” and gave councilors a subjective abstract of every proposal.
Downtown Bangor Partnership’s $1.2 million pandemic aid funding request to rent a New York-based firm to scrub and patrol downtown was among the many 30 purposes that councilors lower from the working to obtain any funding final week. The United Method evaluation panel ranked Downtown Bangor Partnership’s proposal second to final.
Whereas Lundy was sure the volunteer evaluation panel did its finest and had good intentions, she mentioned the panel members’ opinions and imaginative and prescient for the town shifting ahead could differ from these of the councilors.
Lundy appreciates that the council is working arduous, making robust selections and are scrutinized by the general public, however felt the aid cash ought to have been given out sooner so it may very well be put to make use of and make a distinction locally.
“I perceive it’s an unprecedented sum of money and daunting to consider how you can prioritize and allocate it, however on the identical time, I believe that cash may’ve been working for our group a very long time in the past,” Lundy mentioned. “There have been definitely organizations in dire conditions who would have benefited from a faster decision-making course of.”
Jeremiah Titus, secretary for the Bangor firefighters union, Native 772 of the Worldwide Affiliation of Firefighters, mentioned he feels ready to delegate the ARPA cash went in opposition to what the funding was initially meant to do, “that’s, defend cities and infrastructure to get by way of the pandemic.”
The firefighter union’s software requested greater than $817,000 to supply bonuses to first responders, which the evaluation panel ranked 51st of 60. It was additionally denied funding from councilors.
Moreover, looking for enter from a 3rd get together evaluation panel additional delayed any selections on what organizations would get funding, which “defeats the aim of the emergency funding,” Titus mentioned.
“The federal authorities was very fast to get this cash authorised and despatched out, however when it acquired to Bangor, it simply sat for years,” he mentioned.
Titus mentioned this delay in awarding additionally got here in tandem with an increase in homelessness, substance use dysfunction and opioid overdoses in Bangor. He believes these may have been mitigated if this funding had been made obtainable earlier to numerous organizations.
“If we had gotten forward of it a 12 months in the past, who may we have now saved?” Titus mentioned. “Our request apart, the shortcoming to get the cash out and the place it wanted to be has precipitated additional hurt to the group.”
Rick Fournier, Bangor metropolis council chair, mentioned the town determined to accomplice with the United Method as a result of the group has a profitable historical past of organizing evaluation panels and he feels the analysis helped metropolis leaders slender the sphere of candidates.
Whereas Fournier hoped the town may start dispensing funding final 12 months and have it spent by the November 2022 election, he mentioned the town’s curiosity in working with Penobscot County delayed the method.
Regardless of this, Fournier feels councilors at the moment are working by way of purposes as rapidly and pretty as potential, and have made a ultimate resolution on greater than half of the 60 that have been submitted.
“It’s a course of — we’re not going to sit down down and do it in a single night time, however I believe we’ve made some progress,” Fournier mentioned. “I’d love for it to occur sooner, however I need to give everybody a good shake.”
Tate Sullivan, government director of Large Brothers Large Sisters of Mid-Maine, nevertheless, is grateful the town council requested United Method to assist evaluation and rating purposes, because it “offered an unbiased viewpoint on the purposes.”
“Any time you get a pot of federal cash like this, you must create a evaluation course of that’s as truthful and clear as potential,” Sullivan mentioned. “It’s a big pot of cash and I do know the town councilors need to be prudent about spending the cash in a method that the town feels good about.”
The $260,000 request from Large Brothers Large Sisters of Mid-Maine to determine a mentoring hub for Bangor-area youth going through adversity continues to be within the working to obtain aid {dollars} from the town.
