The City Council voted Monday to allocate an additional $377,528.75 in American Rescue Plan Act Healthy Communities and Neighborhoods funding to cover the remaining applicants for the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program. Pictured are members of the City Council during Monday night’s voting session. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

The City Council unanimously voted Monday to allocate additional American Rescue Plan Act funding for the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program.

The resolution approved by the council will provide an additional $377,528.75 in American Rescue Plan Act Healthy Communities and Neighborhoods funds to cover the remaining projects of eligible applicants that have not yet received funding.

The additional funding comes after it was reported earlier this month that the $1.5 million the City Council had previously allocated for the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program would not be enough funding to cover all eligible applicants.

With the additional funding allocated by the City Council during Monday night’s voting session, the Senior Home Improvement program is now expected to be fully funded.

Prior to the council’s vote on the resolution, Finance Committee Chairwoman Kim Ecklund, R-At Large addressed the recent confusion regarding the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program.

“There’s been a lot of noise around this and a lot of uncertainty as to who was funded and who wasn’t going to be funded,” she said. “I just want to make this clear to the public this will fully fund all applications that have been approved through the process and are designated to receive help on these programs.”

City Councilwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward IV, thanked Ecklund and the city administration for working to correct the financial numbers for the ARPA program and expressed optimism that Monday’s vote would represent the final correction for the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program

Regina Brackman, D-Ward III, emphasized the importance of passing the resolution and providing funding for the various home improvement projects.

“I just think it’s well deserved and I’m glad that we’re pushing through the extra money,” she said. “The people in the community really need this and they want this, so I say good job to all that worked on making this happen.”

With the additional $377,528.75 in ARPA funding for the program, City Council President Anthony Dolce, R-Ward II, said the total allocated for the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program is now over $1.8 million.

During last week’s City Council work session, Lisa Volpe, city assessor, told City Council members that the total amount of unfunded projects for the Senior Citizen Home Improvement program was $377,528.75; however, she reported that the program also had $94,672.25 in unutilized funding. As a result, it was believed that the $94,672.25 could be subtracted from the $377,528.75, which would require only $282,856.20 in additional funding.

Following Monday night’s voting session, Ecklund explained that the estimated $94,000 in savings was not correct, which resulted in the need for the full $377,528.75 to be approved by the City Council.

“When I got the final numbers and talking to her and talking to the acting comptroller, it was provided in error, so therefore it had to go back in to make that the $377,000 to bring this whole so that everybody who applied and was accepted and approved will get the project done.”

The City Council also voted unanimously Monday night to approve the designation of $900,000 in American Rescue Plan Act Water, Sewer and Broadband funding for water main replacement and street restoration work on Juliet Street and Roland Road.