City Council members and Mayor Eddie Sundquist are finding some common ground on proposed American Rescue Fund projects.

The council’s Finance and Public Works committees approved designating money to five projects totaling $605,513.15 to be paid for with federal stimulus dollars. Projects include $100,000 for a new roof on the Jamestown Fire Department’s Station 4 on Allen Street, $10,000 to pay for a citywide Knox Box system, $210,513.15 to purchase 60 portable radios for the Jamestown Police Department, $48,000 to pay for a new press box roof at Diethrick Park, and $237,000 for a new roof on the city Parks Department building on Fairmount Avenue.

“We’re chipping away at this,” said Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2 and council president. “We’re knocking these babies down little bit by little bit.”

After committee approvals, the full council will vote on the project authorizations later this month. Council members will vote on the projects to actually authorize spending the money.

“Although we are approving, as you said Tony, some $600,000 here roughly and the millions that we’ve already approved, we still as a council have to go through the process of approving each invoice or whatever comes through charge,” Ecklund said. “I’ll use the police cars as an example. Just like when we purchase any other vehicles it needs to come through us to approve that specific funding as well. This is just authorizing, allocating and designating the monies, it’s not spending down the money. Just so everybody understands when they see this twice.”

Station 4 has missing shingles that have allowed water to seep into the attic and second floor of the fire station, causing structural damage to decking and rafters. The station was built in 1930 and the last roof replacement was done in the mid 1990s.

The radio purchase would provide each police officer an individually assigned radio for use on patrol and special use. Many of the current Motorola portable radios have batteries that don’t last throughout an eight-hour shift and there are not enough for officers to have their own radio, which can cause issues where a member of a special team doesn’t have a radio available for a call-out. The new radios will also have better reception and coverage in areas of the city where officers have trouble communicating with other officers or dispatchers.

“I just wanted to note that this new cost is for radios that will communicate with other departments,” Ecklund said. “This is the higher choice radios.”

Sundquist has been pushing during past meetings for the council to start spending the federal stimulus money. Sundquist said Monday he appreciated the council’s pending approval of the five projects and that he and his staff are going to approach the projects differently in the future to help move the process along.

“Thank you all for the work you have been doing on the American Rescue Plan Act and starting to approve these projects,” Sundquist said. “It’s a really big thing for the community. I really appreciate all that work and the time and effort you guys are putting into these. We are planning on providing a group of projects each month for you all to take a look at, to understand and, starting with the next council session we’ll start to talk to you about some of the economic development projects and some of the other projects we’ll start to see.”