Thursday evening’s Community Management Team meeting.
In a pandemic time, riverine murals and festive community celebrations need to be put hold.
Acknowledging that reality, members of the Fair Haven Community Management Team Thursday evening voted to take back $10,300 earmarked for those two projects.
They supported redeploying the funds to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) for a local assisted living facility and a community health clinic, and maybe even for police and firemen.
But who would purchase the stuff. And can they even find it?
The Fair Haven Community Management Team (FHCMT) debated that question in its first monthly meeting help via the Zoom app.
About 38 people came online during the two-hour virtual gathering, including 18 voting members, in a meeting hosted by Corresponding Secretary David Weinreb.
The discussion referenced $20,000 that city government’s anti-blight Livable City Initiative (LCI) has granted each community management team this year to spend through the Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP).
Last month, even before the pandemic had turned in-person meetings into online ones, the FHCMT had already conducted an online ranked choice voting procedure about how to spend the money. Members voted to allocate their funding to five projects. They included $7,300 to paint a welcoming mural on the underpass at Middletown Avenue and Front Street and $3,000 to support the Quinnipiac Riverfest.
The proposers of those two projects, Susan Regan and Lee Cruz, were in attendance at Thursday evening’s meeting. They suggested that the funding they received be returned to the management team to be redirected for the more pressing needs of the pandemic.
Specifically, Cruz said the money would be better spent split between the Fair Haven Community Health Center and the Mary Wade Home.
“Can’t be painting murals at a time like this,” said Regan.
“Those organizations are on the front line and also are among the largest employers” in Fair Haven, Cruz said.
Someone else suggested that members of the fire and police departments might also be able to use the funds to purchase PPE. Regan said the returned money could be split among those three groups.
Before a vote was taken, LCI staffer Laurie Lopez-Anastasio cautioned that if the money were returned, that would require LCI approval, which she said should not be a problem.
However, if a a new project were proposed, NPIP procedures are such that a new budget would have to be created for the project. Rules prohibit spending the money to pay for salaries or administrative fees
“So let’s say we want to spend $2,000 on diapers” for the Fair Haven Community Health Center, said the FHCMT Recording Secretary Sally Esposito.
Supplies like that would be all right, said Lopez-Anastasio.
Cruz, a staffer at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, informed the group that the foundation has established a special fund to address basic community needs — such as food, diapers, shelter.
He proposed the redirected NPIP funds be used to cover items, perhaps like PPE, that fill in the remaining gaps.
While the discussion about the proposed target of redirected funds was held in abeyance, a vote was taken on the return.
“I make a motion we accept Susan’s and Lee’s offer to return the $10,300 to the CMT,” said Mary Ann Moran.
The motion passed, with 15 in favor, none opposed, and three abstentions.
There followed a 40-minute discussion about how to act most swiftly and effectively and to make the most difference in Fair Haven. Lopez- Anastasio said the best approach might be for the CMT to buy the supplies as a group and just present them to the beneficiaries. “You buy it and give me the receipts.”
“But who’s going to go out and purchase it?” asked Treasurer Darlene Casella.
Could we purchase through the city’s purchasing agent? Sally Esposito queried
“I’d have to ask,” replied Lopez-Anastasio.
“If you’re buying for the police department,” said longtime James Street resident Mark Oliver, “you need to buy what they need. You need to be specific,” or risk wasting the effort.
“Do the clinic and Mary Wade even need PPE?” asked District Manager Sgt. Michael Fumiatti.
The answer was an emphatic yes from Mary Wade’s representative at the meeting, Lisa Hottin.
“We’re in desperate need of PPE,” she said. “And we’re experiencing high prices and we’re running low. It’d be very helpful.” (Click here to read more about Mary Wade Home’s needs.)
Cruz suggested all three potential beneficiaries provide a list of what they need and those items most requested in common, for example, N95 masks, could be purchased in bulk.
Lopez-Anastasio reminded the group how difficult it is to find those items. LCI, she said, is struggling with the matter for its staffers.
The discussion shifted perhaps to using the funding to replenish local food pantries; or to support local restaurants by organizing, with the returned funds, community dining nights out. It might be take-out, but the money would still help keep alive strapped businesses, like Grand Apizza, on a running tab.
Whatever the choice, Cruz reemphasized, it should fill in gaps left by other groups and be uniquely Fair Haven.
In the end, as different potential uses for the funding proliferated, David Weinreb said, “We’re not going to get clarity in five minutes.”
Again, technology came to the rescue: “We can get together a list on Google inviting the ideas,” he said, and then vote at a subsequent meeting, or electronically.
“That sounds good to me,” said Regan. “We’ll get a broader perspective.”
“Amen to that,” said Cruz.
As to the other three NPIP projects that the FHCMT had approved — $4,125 for summer youth jobs at New Haven Farms; $2,500 for school zone art works; and $3,000 for a Saturday youth academy conducted by ARTE — they are still on.
So wrote FHCMT Treasurer Darlene Casella in an email following the meeting. “No one has declined money yet.”
this is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.. reach out to police and fire chief offices for who handles purchasing and offer them the finances in the form of a check made payable to the company they purchase the products from. It may increase their purchasing power by decreasing the cost for buying more!