New Bedford spending $82 million in pandemic relief with an eye on the future - The New Bedford Light (2024)

NEW BEDFORD — Local projects funded by pandemic relief money will shape the city for decades to come, city officials say.

The federal American Rescue Plan, the coronavirus relief bill passed in March 2021, dropped nearly $82 million of pandemic recovery funds into New Bedford’s lap. Since then, the city has approved more than $60 million in spending, with a heavy focus on housing, cultural facilities, and infrastructure.

“We focused on investment that would have a long duration and make a big impact,” said Christina Connelly, the city’s chief operating officer.

This funding was the most significant infusion of federal investment for New Bedford since the block grants of the 1970s, Connelly said. That’s why the city wanted to focus on brick-and-mortar projects, rather than activities or programs that would end when the money ran out.

“This is really a once-in-a-generation, if not once-in-several-generation, opportunity that I think the city has capitalized on to the greatest extent possible,” Connelly said.

More money went to housing than any other category, taking up about a fifth of the funding allocated so far — over $12 million. Most of that was financing for new, mixed-income housing developments.

The city’s contribution of $5 million for the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center renovation was the largest single expense, which helped make arts and culture another major spending category.

The city has approved several million more dollars for dozens of infrastructure projects, such as improving outdoor spaces and managing drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater.

Other major projects include $2.5 million for a new child care center in the Goulart Square neighborhood and the $1.1 million demolition of the city’s old trash incinerator. Public buildings will get a total of $3.6 million in renovations and ventilation improvements. More than $3.5 million went into the city’s general fund to replace lost tax revenue, which was one of the key purposes of the federal package.

New Bedford’s focus on long-term capital projects sets it apart. A Brookings Institution analysis found that as of June 2023, 44% of the pandemic relief spending in larger cities went to government operations. By contrast, only 7% of New Bedford’s relief money has gone into its general fund.

The city’s infrastructure projects on outdoor spaces and water systems add up to 23% of the funds approved so far, more than double the percentage that cities analyzed by Brookings spent. Arts and culture was New Bedford’s second-largest spending category, but it didn’t even count as a major category in the Brookings analysis.

Addressing the housing crisis

The city’s focus on housing projects came partly from public survey feedback, Connelly said.

“It seemed like everybody was really like, ‘housing, housing, housing, housing,’” she said.

The federal aid helped make several mixed-income housing developments possible, with awards ranging from $500,000 to $3 million. Construction is still underway on the projects. They include three new buildings on Union Street and renovations of the Hillman Street Firehouse, Holy Family High School, and Capitol Theater buildings.

A smaller portion of money has been allocated for programs to increase homeownership and reduce homelessness.

City officials prioritized funding new construction because they wanted to target the underlying cause of the city’s housing crisis, which is a shortage of apartments, Connelly said. Other resources were already available for struggling tenants during the pandemic, she added.

Supporting the arts through the pandemic

The $5 million for Zeiterion renovations was a “no-brainer,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said when he announced the investment during his 2022 State of the City address. The $32 million project includes upgrades and expansions throughout the theater and critical work to bring the building up to code.

Another $3.5 million went to local arts and culture nonprofits for COVID-19 mitigation. They include a few local museums, the Co-Creative Center, Your Theatre, and the James and Sarah Arnold Mansion.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were also doled out through 78 small grants to local art organizations and artists.

Filmmakers, DJs, painters, poets, and other creative workers, including an “environmental alchemist,” have received $4,000 grants and business planning support through ARTnet, a program aimed at mitigating the economic harms of the pandemic for artists.

Two other programs, Art is Everywhere and Wicked Cool Places, offered larger grants of as much as $29,040 for arts and culture events and exhibitions around the city. The 51st Cape Verdean Recognition Parade, reggae performances on West Beach, a Juneteenth pop-up market, and a production of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” received support.

Improving outdoor spaces

The federal relief money presented a unique opportunity to make big investments in the city’s parks and beaches, Connelly said.

“Frankly, those funds are hard to come by under normal circ*mstances,” she said.

Over $1 million is going toward trees and a plan for planting them. Eleven projects totaling more than $3 million are funding better parks, including the new Abolition Row Park, which commemorates the city’s role in the Underground Railroad.

Two other memorials also received funding: $900,000 for a planned Global War on Terror memorial — plus $700,000 for stormwater management landscaping around it — and $49,000 in conservation costs for the Whalemen and Fisherman’s Memorial statue.

Both East Beach and West Beach received support for improvements. Nearly $27,000 was allocated for a study on how to remove anchors that once formed the base for a floating water park near East Beach. The company that set up the park went under before it could remove the last of its equipment, Connelly said.

Other infrastructure projects include streetlight improvements around the city and pedestrian upgrades on JFK Boulevard and the waterfront.

Water management

After outdoor spaces, the city’s next-largest infrastructure investment was in water: drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater projects.

The projects will serve Brooklawn Park, Buttonwood Park, New Bedford Regional Airport, and East Beach. Money was also set aside for road work relating to water projects. Another $14,350 went toward Water Department cybersecurity.

Fueling local businesses

The city approved $5.6 million to support local businesses. Almost all of it was direct aid.

“There was that big broad category of economic impacts of the pandemic, and we’re still feeling those,” Connelly said. “Small businesses are still feeling them — we hear that all the time, because things have gotten more expensive, interest rates have gone up.”

The NBForward! program gave grants of up to $20,000 to 51 local businesses to help them weather the pandemic. A similar program, NB100!, has given “kick-starter” grants up to $10,000 for 18 new businesses. In total, $3.3 million was approved for those programs.

Another $2.1 million has been set aside for the Enhanced Facade Improvement Program, which helps local businesses upgrade their storefronts; 69 businesses have signed up.

Fighting the virus

Health-related expenditures added up to just $1.4 million, or only 2% of the funding approved so far. The aid helped cover city payroll for time spent on pandemic mitigation, ambulance equipment, and vaccine distribution costs.

Nearly $400,000 went toward digitization to help the city conduct business remotely. Expenses included an online contract bidding platform, an online 311 system, and smartboards to facilitate remote work for city employees.

What’s next

All of the city’s pandemic relief funds must be obligated by the end of 2024 — that means each expenditure needs to be formalized by a contract, grant agreement, or invoice. Any money not obligated by that deadline will have to be returned to the federal government.

The final deadline for spending the money and completing the projects is the end of 2026.

The city still has $22 million that hasn’t been formally allocated for any projects, and more than $18 million in approved spending hasn’t been obligated. But Connelly said the city won’t leave any money on the table.

Much of that money has been informally committed to certain projects, with a formal commitment on the way, she said. There’s also a list of potential projects that the city could spend the remaining money on, and the value of those projects exceeds the amount of pandemic relief money the city has left. They include possible investments in the city’s golf course, airport, and marina. The money could also fund more stormwater management and trees.

“We’re not worried,” Connelly said with a chuckle. “We’ll be able to spend the money.”

Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org

Editor’s note: This story was modified on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, to change the decade in which New Bedford received significant block grants, and to add the James and Sarah Arnold Mansion to the list of museums to receive grants.

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