Page 64 - BusinessWest November 24, 2021

By George O’Brien councilors, selectmen, and town “
opportunity that you didn’t before
because you have money to offer
market-rate housing), new businesses, and more. “These can’t be ‘bridge-to-nowhere’ kinds of investment — they have to be meaningful invest-
ments that all of us can benefit from,” said Jeff Daley, president and CEO of Westmass Devel- opment Corp., who also warned against a rush to commission studies that would likely yield reports that sit on shelves for years.
Keith Nesbitt, Berkshire Bank’s senior vice president for Business Banking for the Pioneer Valley and Connecticut, agreed.
“There are investments that are needed, and I think they come in a variety of forms,” he said. “I don’t know how we’re going to attract significant private investment without that pump priming that government resources are going to provide. I think this is a once-in-a-generation opportu- nity, and I really hope that local leaders are bold enough to dream big when it comes to how we use these funds.
“There are very safe investments that can be made, and everyone would benefit,” he went on. “But there are game-changing investments that
‘U ”
administrators mull myriad nprecedented.’ ‘Once in a options for spending these
You do have a unique
lifetime.’ ‘Once in a genera- funds — and how other federal tion.’ ‘Transformative.’ ‘Totally money, such as that included in unique.’ the infrastructure bill recently
These are just some of the passed into law, might be put words and phrases people are using to describe to use.
people to come in and develop in your area.
the federal money now flowing into the state and Much of the talk on the local its individual cities and towns from the Ameri- level concerns infrastructure —
can Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to help them, their residents, and their businesses recover from the hard sting of COVID-19. Area communities are in line for windfalls ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars for the smallest of towns in Franklin and Hampshire Counties to more than $130 million for Springfield. And the state itself is receiving more than $5 billion.
By and large, there are few strings attached
to this money, so the $64,000 question (or the ‘fill in an amount’ question, as the case may be with individual communities) concerns how this windfall will be spent.
The debate is continuing on Beacon Hill and all across the region as mayors, city and town
roads, bridges, sewer and water JOY MARTIN lines — as well as new roofs,
HVAC systems, and more for
municipal buildings, new park-
ing garages, parks, etc., etc., etc.
And while these options have merit, those
who spoke with BusinessWest on the broad sub- ject of how this spending spree, especially the ARPA money, should be conducted said that, from an economic-development standpoint, area cities and towns — and the state itself — would do well to think bigger, and more long-term, with an eye toward using this money in ways that jus- tify that word ‘transformative,’ and also spark pri- vate-sector development in housing (especially
“There are very safe investments that can be made, and everyone would benefit. But there are game- changing investments that can be made, and I hope that they are.”
KEITH NESBITT
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