Brookfield trustees narrow down ARP projects
Time is running out for local cities and townships to decide how to spend the American Rescue Plan dollars allocated to them.
With an end-of-year deadline looming, Brookfield Township is toying with a few thousand dollars still needing to be spent.
From police and fire projects to township park upgrades, trustees plan to meet on Tuesday, December 3 to further discuss where the dollars should go.
Brookfield Township still has about $26,000 to dish out to township projects before the end of December. Close to $1 million has already been spent on police, fire, and road department upgrades. Trustees recently decided to put $30,000 towards a wellness center for the township's safety services.
"My fellow trustees and I decided to invest in this," said Trustee Shannon Devitz. "I think it would be great for the first responders to have somewhere to go and decompress and to upgrade some of their equipment."
From paving lots outside of the administration building and township banquet hall to potentially adding a nine-hole disc golf course at Brookfield Township Community Park, a plan must be in place by December 31, or those dollars disappear.
"When tossing around ideas, the disc golf was big," Devitz added. "So that's on our list. Right now we are waiting to get quotes for the parking lots around here. We think that's important. They're disintegrating and we're never going to have that large chunk of money to invest in those."
Trustees have discussed dozens of options over the past few months.
During Monday's trustee meeting, Trustee Daniel Suttles mentioned the Brookfield Township app is expected to be up and running this January. The app would notify residents of township updates like road closures or boil alerts, for example. Users could also report street lights being out and stay up to date on any township updates.
"It's good to use for people to know what's going on in the township," Suttles said to the crowd on Monday. "Hopefully we will get this out by the first of the year."
The township has worked with Howland Township to learn how to create a community app.
"I think we've hit every part of the township and made some really big investments," Devitz said. "That's going to stretch our dollars in the departments for many more years to come."
The trustees plan to meet Tuesday to further discuss ARP funding, before they submit a final list.
Sgt. Dean and Patrolman Leonardo with Brookfield Police Department were also honored Monday for performing CPR on a man suffering from a heart attack in early October. Because of Dean and Leonardo's quick actions, the man survived the medical episode.