Tri County Sentry

Council faces tough ARPA Funding choices


By Chris Frost

Tri County Sentry

 

Oxnard–The City Council debated strict timelines to take advantage of the ARPA (American Rescue Plan) funding before the February 7 deadline.  

The City has many needs, and balancing the projects to get all the money spent based on the economy makes the choices difficult.

“We need to have a discussion about why we need to shift gears to have the correct pace,” City Manager Alex Nguyen said. “We also need to discuss modifying the American Rescue Plan.”

Mayor Pro Tem Bryan MacDonald noted they approved Sports Park with a direct approach to soccer and baseball fields.

“Previous to that, we approved an Aquatic Center, and it started out with a 50-meter pool, and now it’s down to a 30-meter pool,” he said. “Looking at this list, in there are projects involving parks. Here we are, having approved an Aquatic Center and Sports Park as recreation facilities, and we’re going to turn around and not fund six parks that are already existing parks. Because we can’t get bonds right now because of the lawsuit, that means we won’t have an Aquatic Center in the near future, and we won’t have Sports Park in the near future. We’re eliminating six more park projects out of ARPA funding, and I’m not sure where that money is coming from. We’re not like the Federal Government, where we can raise the debt ceiling, print more money, and move on down the road. I feel a little bit silly saying we have all these things on the plan and say, oh, no money; we’re not going to do anything.”

Council Member Gabriela Basua called the items on the list that were in red a mess.

“The Staff took the construction and designs projects, and basically, we’re doing IT,” she said. 

When the ARPA first started, she said replacing the playground equipment at Pleasant Valley Park in her District is “extremely essential” because of health and safety concerns.

“It’s not that the equipment is outdated,” she said. “The equipment is broken, and there is nothing there. We’ve got pieces missing. That in itself, I really want to fight and keep, but if we go to the current CIP list, item 11 says Wilson and Pleasant Valley Park. Can somebody tell me what that item means?”

Public Works Director Michael Wolfe said there is an active construction project at Pleasant Valley Park for restroom improvements funded by CDBG.

“It’s a Noho Construction, and $417,000 is the approximate construction cost,” he said.

He said there were also general Park improvement projects not limited to restrooms.

Basua asked if she could make a swap and get the Pleasant Valley Playground equipment reprioritized.

Wolfe said swapping those projects would be equal in cost.

“I would make a recommendation that we swap those,” Basua said.

Council Member Gabe Teran said there was a grant for an all-inclusive Playground at Wilson Park.

“I want to make sure that if we swap these out, we won’t be prioritizing that grant funding down in the CIP list,” he said.

Wolfe said the playground is in the design phase.

“It goes back to where we’re potentially changing out a project we already spent time and money on through the design process that’s Grant Funded for a project we haven’t started the design,” he said.

Council Member Bert Perello noted that Wilson and Pleasant Valley Park are in different Districts and neighborhoods.

“Will benefit to Pleasant Valley take a back seat,” he asked.

Basua said she’s not asking to push Wilson Park in favor of Pleasant Valley Park.

Mayor John Zaragoza said they’ve already painted City Hall and wanted to speak about the annex.

“The annex building across the street is over 60 years old, and it externally needs a lot of maintenance,” he said. “When the people talk about that building, they say is that the prison, you know, and it’s kind of embarrassing. We need to move it into ARPA money right now and adjust it accordingly.”

Wolfe said the City needs some expertise in concrete construction before it can move forward because of its age. 

MacDonald said he’s getting calls about leaky roofs at the Senior Services Center near Wilson Park.

“We have employees in offices with buckets catching the water coming in,” he said. “You can paint a building all you want, but if the water is going to ruin the roof and walls, painting is an exercise in futility,” he said.

Councilman Oscar Madrigal said he understands that people are arguing for projects and promises were made and won’t be kept.

“You were at our neighborhood meeting in Colonia last summer,” he said to Wolfe. “Tatiana did a wonderful job at that meeting, and the one promise she did make was she’d see them all next year, and there would be some improvement. That’s a promise she could not keep, and that’s a promise the City could not keep as well. I completely understand this, and we have to do what is best for all. I went through the list, and the districts that lose the most are four and five.”

Teran said the City needs to continue to search for Grants to deal with the ongoing deferred maintenance issues and the Staff to do the work.

Perello agrees with Teran and notes the City does not want to return any unused ARPA money.

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