Mayor Domenic Sarno is being urged to reopen the Nonprofit, Small and New Business ARPA application for at least 90 days by City Councilor Tracye Whitfield, Chair of the Springfield City Council’s ARPA Subcommittee, and a City Council representative on the Springfield ARPA Advisory Committee. She is also requesting that he grant an additional 60 days to the Senior and Household deadline, which expired on Sunday, January 15, 2023.
It is very unfortunate that residents and small business owners were not told before the ARPA application process was closed without warning.
People thought they had until 2024 to submit small business applications based on what the administration had said in the past. Councilor Whitfield said, “The Mayor and his staff have told people many times that ARPA funding will be available until the money runs out or until 2024, whichever comes first.” “Nothing about this process has been transparent,” she continued. There are applicants who have paid for technical assistance services and are in the middle of completing their applications when suddenly they learn that the application period has ended. Individuals won’t just visit the city website at random to look up this information. The reasoning behind keeping citizens in the dark about the process baffles me.
Since they learned about the application’s closure, Councilor Whitfield has been inundated with phone calls and emails from business owners. In fact, on Friday, January 13, Whitfield says she ran into the proprietor of a well-known restaurant in Springfield, who was dismayed to learn that the application process had ended.
At City Hall, she also encountered a constituent who was scrambling to complete her Senior application after learning that the deadline was January 15. It was very upsetting to witness an elderly person, who desperately needed the money, rushing frantically about City Hall to submit their ARPA application by the deadline.
“I’m perplexed by situations like this. Due to the lack of transparency surrounding the ARPA application’s closure, I’m trying to determine whether the mayor’s administration is being disingenuous or simply deceptive.
There is still time for the mayor to make things right. He is the only one who has the authority to reopen and extend the ARPA application. Whitfield recommends that this process be extended for an additional 60 days.
