Members of Brookfield’s road crew wrestle into place plastic pipe for a new culvert on North Albright McKay Road. Shown are, from left D.J. Mild, Jaime Fredenburg, Matt O’Dell (in excavator) and Richard Roberts. This project was paid for from the township’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation.
For the last two years, Brookfield trustees have worked to spend $870,749 in American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded by the federal government for community projects.
After having bought trucks for the fire and road departments and radios for the police department, and building an electronic sign at the administration building, putting picnic tables at the green and renovating the banquet hall, the trustees came into September with about $292,000 left to spend and a deadline of Dec. 31 to get the money “under contract,” although it doesn’t have to be paid out by that time.
“We can’t let this stuff sit much longer,” said Trustee Dan Suttles. Trustee Mark Ferrara agreed that he doesn’t want to lose any of the grant and called for “fast track(ing)” ARPA projects.
On Sept. 25, the trustees allocated the use of ARPA funds to buy ballistic helmets and shields for the police department at a cost of $24,020; install exterior lights at the administration building, $3,160; install new front and rear entrance doors at the administration building, $19,000; and pay for the culvert replacement project the road crew undertook on North Albright McKay Road, up to $14,000.
The trustees also have committed, informally, $50,000 to cover any cost overruns for the upcoming Wildwood Road storm drainage improvement program, and want to pave the parking lot at the administration building and possibly outside the banquet hall, for which cost estimates have not been formally received.
Other possible uses for the money discussed include moving the lockers out of the fire department truck bay and cleaning out an exercise area for use by township employees; creating a nine-hole disc golf course at Brookfield Township Community Park; buying a utility vehicle for the police department for use when officers have to search woods or for at football games; creating a phone app for residents to receive information from township departments; paving the small parking area at the northeast corner of the green; providing seed money for the creation of a road department storage building; and buying small radios for use by plains-clothes police officers.
Various township officials are seeking prices for the proposed projects for possible formal action in the coming months.
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