By Chris Paul
During the latest meeting of the Londonderry Town Council members accepted a substantial amount of funding from a variety of sources.
During the Public Hearing portion of the meeting, Londonderry Finance Director Justin Campo, brought two grants forward for the council to vote on accepting.
The first was from the American Rescue Plan Act, for local government under the Corona Virus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Campo informed the council that they are anticipated to get $2.7 million from that act. He added that the deadline to towns to opt in was Aug. 18 and if the town chooses not to pursue the funds, the money would go back into the pool and would be disbursed to those communities who did opt in.
The town has already received roughly half of the money from the federal government.
When asked what strings might be attached to accepting the money, Campo responded, “There are a lot of strings attached to accepting the money.”
He added the government is more clear with what you can’t do with the money than what can be done with the funds.
He also explained, “It seems to be a lot of … Why don’t you do it and we’ll tell you if it’s wrong.”
Town Manager, Kevin Smith, added that any plans to spend any of this money will come before the council before it is spent.
Another fund that was accepted by the council was for a second K-9 unit for the Police Department. It totaled $27,000 for the dog, training, and outfitting the cruiser.
When asked if the dog was necessary since the department already has one dog the response was that this is a successful program and by the time the current dog will be ready to retire, the new one will be already in place.
The council also accepted just over $1,700 in funding from Rae Andreano, a local scout working on his Eagle Scout project.
The project is for a 9-11 monument that will be constructed at the Central Fire Station on Mammoth Road.