A resolution sponsored by Mayor Ken Hopkins to allocate $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds across all six City Wards for the purposes of playground upgrades and repairs was brought before the Finance Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 2. Action was continued after members of the committee raised concerns.

The resolution, sponsored by Hopkins and presented to the Council by Chief of Staff Anthony Moretti, proposed granting $100,000 in ARPA funds to each of the six Wards to be spent on playground repairs and updates for existing school properties. Under the language of the resolution each Ward would have the chance to put the funds allocated towards repair of playgrounds in need, and any residual funds would be spread between remaining Wards.

Moretti said that the Mayor had chosen to sponsor the resolution after meeting with Council Vice President Lammis Vargas last month regarding the condition of the playground at Edgewood Highlands Elementary School in Ward 1. The school’s playground is in disrepair and failed to be open upon the first day of this school year.

The mayor agreed that there was no excuse for this and the school needed to have a playground, Moretti said.  In order to facilitate this as quickly as possible, and as equitably as possible, the Mayor’s resolution attempted to allocate funds equally to all six Wards at once to be used as each Ward sees fit to update school playground equipment.

Vargas questioned whether this was the best way to allocate the funds, raising concerns that this did not take into account that some Wards did not have equal needs to others in repairs. The timing of these repairs and assessment of how many repairs were needed at each playground, she said, were important in allocating the funds between Wards.

While the Council was in agreement that ARPA funds were the correct way to approach the issue, Vargas felt that if every Ward were to receive money it would leave too much unaccounted for when it came to how those funds were used.

“If we take it in Ward 1, for example, and we get $100,000 obviously the priority is Edgewood Highland Playground,” Councilwoman Vargas said. “That facility is now closed. However, one could also argue that Chester Barrows (Elementary School) playground is dire need as well.”

Approaching the administration in July or August about the condition of Barrows, Vargas said that the solution of laying mulch down had been a quick and temporary fix for that school, but simply giving her ward, or any ward, a flat sum without doing any level of study simply wouldn’t work in the long run.

“My point that I’m making is there is no comprehensive way, no best practices and there’s not an actual protocol right now or initial steps that we would be following to determine how is that $100,000 going to get spent and prioritize if there are playgrounds within the schools,” Vargas continued.

Worry was also raised that once the funds were allocated, there would be confusion as to how any excess money would be reallocated if a ward did report that it had not found the entire $100,000 necessary.

 “Every penny that gets spent out of ARPA funds has to come before us here in the City Council,” explained Vargas. “So, I understand that component of it, but once we grant that $100,000 already to be used that’s it.”

Following up on her concerns regarding Edgewood Highlands’ playground, Vargas referenced a study done by J. P. LaRue, a playground equipment supplier based in Little Compton, which had been done in May of 2022. John LaRue, who’s number was on the report presented, would not confirm or deny when asked if he had been hired by the city to perform the study of the playground, and only said that if any questions were to be asked they should be directed to Parks and Recreation Director Raymond Tessaglia. The report showed that the playground should have been closed immediately due to a state of disrepair. This report was forwarded to her by a member of the public.

Councilwoman Nicole Renzulli was shocked that this was her, or the Council’s, first time seeing the report and asked of the administration who conducted it and where it came from. Vargas said she had reached out to the administration for more information on the report as well but had been unable to get a copy from them.

“No one has seen this report is that what we’re saying?” Renzulli asked of the room. “I just want to understand correctly who received that from the administration. Why haven’t we seen this? Do you know?”

“This evening is the first I’ve seen that,” Chief of Staff Anthony Moretti said. “Nor about that email. I couldn’t understand that myself, so it’s kind of breaking news to all of us. I don’t know the source of it, who paid for it, who requested it or what it’s for.”

Committee Chair and Ward 3 Councilman John Donegan said asked the administration to provide a copy of that report for the next finance committee meeting, but was told by Moretti that without knowing who it came from there was no way he could do so.

Donegan stressed that if the report was paid for by the city then someone should have a copy of it, and asked Finance Director Thomas Zidelis to also look into the matter and provide a copy of the report to the city at the next meeting along with which budget the funds for the report were taken from.

Council President Jessica Marino said that she is eagerly hoping to fix playgrounds that need fixing while prioritizing the ones who need it most. She agreed that an assessment would be beneficial, perhaps performed by the Parks and Recreation Department, and should put the playgrounds in Cranston into categories that order them from most in need to least.

“That is the way that we should be handling the appropriations of this money,” Marino said. “The playgrounds that are most in need those are the ones that should be getting the bulk of the funding. I understand and appreciate the notion that we want to be fair and disperse it evenly, but what’s fair is fixing what we need to fix with the funds that we have.”

Worried that the city is running out of time to use ARPA Ward 4 Councilman Richard Campopiano said that he would like to see funds being allocated soon and proposed the resolution be amended so that time is not wasted before the funds are gone.

“I would like to make an amendment to using the ARPA funds, but instead of equally, on a sliding scale starting with the worst ones (playgrounds), obviously Edgewood,” Campopiano said. “Then working our way down, so that we still have these funds to draw from and get this work done to get that open as soon as possible.”

After discussing the matter further, Marino said that she understood the sense of urgency to allocate the money, but to make sure it was done correctly she would happily agree to hold a special session, refer the matter to other committees or do what it took to prioritize the allocation of the funds ahead of time.

In response, Campopiano agreed to withdraw his motion for amendment. From there the council chose to continue the matter until the next meeting while they wait for more information. If no special meetings are scheduled to happen sooner, the next meeting of the Finance Committee will be held on November 6 at 7 p.m.