Marblehead Select Board Approves $2.4 Million In ARPA Funding Use

MARBELHEAD, MA — The Marblehead Select Board approved using about two-thirds of the town's remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding on rebuilt bridges on the rail trail, new information software systems for the town and schools and new fiber optic lines connecting municipal services.

The Select Board approved about $2.4 million of the $6.1 million the town was initially granted in ARPA funding for the three projects. The town had already allocated about $2.7 million with the latest approvals leaving about $969,000 in funding that must be spent in the next 15 months.

Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said the rail trail work will include the replacement of two bridges in the Lead Mills area that are currently not accessible and incorporate them into the trail.

The cost of that project is estimated at about $1.4 million.

"For this project, and other projects, even with the request of ARPA funding we will continue to seek additional grants for these projects and if we receive the grants that will reduce the reliance on the ARPA funds," Kezer said. "So there is the chance of the cost being less than what we're requesting. But by authorizing funding through ARPA it allows us to fully execute the project and move forward."

The bridge construction will link the Marblehead trail to the Salem trail and will enable a view of the harbor from the rail trail.

Kezer said the current school and municipal information software is outdated and obsolete. The software upgrade allocation is about $464,000.

"We absolutely know we need to replace it," Kezer said. "It is a critical function of the town to be able to manage our financial resources."

He said the upgrade cloud-based system will allow central management of all of the financial applications and help modernize the whole budget process.

He said the town's fiber optic system is similarly worrisome in that it currently runs in a "daisy chain" system connecting buildings "like Christmas lights" where if there is a failure in one section of the system the rest of the system will go down.

He said the issue became evident during the renovation of the Abbot Public Library when the contractor sought to move lines as part of the construction work and there were fears a break during that move could knock out the town's emergency dispatch system.

"That shows just how precarious we are with that system," Kezer said.

He said the reason these projects were prioritized was their urgency, their fits within the ARPA spending framework and the ability to implement the upgrades on a timely basis given ARPA's expiration in December 2024.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)