By Mike Finney

DOVER — The city showed that it is putting priority on assisting its most vulnerable population Tuesday, as leaders announced where $1.4 million of its nearly $8.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding would be going.

The first round of ARPA plans was passed during a special meeting of the Legislative, Finance and Administration Committee, and it puts most of the focus on homelessness and affordable housing.

The measure must still be approved by City Council at its next meeting Monday, but with all council members also part of the committee, odds are that it will move forward without opposition.

Organizations that will be receiving a combined $1,378,978 in ARPA monies include the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing, Central Delaware Habitat for Humanity, Leon N. Weiner & Associates/Dover Housing Authority, the Central Delaware Housing Collaborative, Elizabeth W. Murphey School, The People’s Church of Dover and Reading Assist.

“I think the city is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing, taking care of our community, and I am very proud of council and our committees that we decided to take care of our most vulnerable population first,” City Council President Roy Sudler Jr. said.

President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion ARPA bill March 11, 2021, to aid public health and economic recovery from the pandemic.

“We were very thorough,” said Councilman David Anderson, chairman of the Legislative, Finance and Administration Committee. “We evaluated for about six hours. We went through everything to make sure everything was going to be done properly, that the organizations had the management capacity to accomplish the goal and to make sure the goals advance the city. I think the city is going to be better off for this in the long run.”

Dover’s Joint ARPA Subcommittee chose to provide $210,000 in grant funding to the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing, which is aiming to increase health services to include a nurse practitioner for on-site care.

Additional health education will be provided to all residents and case-management clients, including information and encouragement regarding COVID-19 vaccines and routine testing.

The budget also includes more than four years of staffing and a one-time purchase of equipment and supplies.

Central Delaware Habitat for Humanity received $260,000, which will be used to cover materials and subcontractors for 13 affordable-housing units in the Downtown Development District.

Leon N. Weiner & Associates/Dover Housing Authority was awarded the highest amount of ARPA funds in the first round, a $400,000 grant, saying the money will be used for the renovation of Owens Manor and Queen Manor, totaling 110 senior subsidized-housing units.

The Central Delaware Housing Collaborative received $250,000, which will be used to renovate a building acquired by the collaborative that will be converted to transitional housing for women and children. Funds will also be used to supplement the payroll of staff, following the impact of COVID-19.

Elizabeth W. Murphey School will use its $30,000 to renovate areas of a to-be-acquired property to serve at-risk young adults and prevent the spread of COVID-19 with separate sleeping quarters and divided living areas.

Funds for the Murphey School will also be used for duct replacement or professional cleaning of the HVAC system. Non-contact temperature scanning and COVID-19 test kits will also be purchased.

A grant of $153,978 was given to The People’s Church of Dover to be used to rehabilitate its basement, which shelters homeless men and prevents the spread of COVID-19.

Reading Assist received $75,000 to be used to tutor low-income students in kindergarten through third grade in Dover’s highest-needs elementary schools.

The organization said that, due to the pandemic, the amount of learning loss because of school absences and teacher shortages, the students have experienced “COVID slide.”

Reading Assist will support struggling readers during the 2022-’23 year with daily high-dosage tutoring during the school day, as well as with individualized daily tutoring after school.

In other action

• Dover electric director Paul Waddell announced that a mistake had taken place in earlier bidding to install a switchgear building as part of the new Garrison Oak Technology & Business Park’s substation and awarded the contract to Philadelphia Electric, rather than Siemens, which was originally given the bid.

The original recommendation was to award the contract to Siemens based upon the additional items received by the bidder and because Philadelphia Electric’s submission was deemed incomplete by the city.

However, after a challenge by Philadelphia Electric and subsequent legal review from Schmittinger and Rodriguez, it was determined that Philadelphia Electric’s bid ($886,000) was the lowest responsive and responsible bidder as required by the purchasing policy.

Siemens’ bid was $1,187,158.

To change the award to the lower bidder, the city will be required to pay approximately 15% of Siemens’ contract amount, as it was previously given a notice to proceed.

“Philadelphia Electric was the cheaper bid, and Siemens was $250,000 more expensive,” Mr. Waddell said. “We evaluated incorrectly based upon what we thought we were looking at, and after legal review, they said we needed to go the other way.”

Councilman Sudler and Councilman Fred Neil praised Mr. Waddell for correcting the error and doing due diligence to save taxpayers money.

• At the request of Councilman Anderson, a proposed amendment to the policy for community enhancement fund expenditures was drafted for consideration.

The amendment enables the use of such funds to aid nonprofits that help those who have suffered from natural or human-caused disasters affecting multiple household members within city limits.

“This came about because there was a question of whether or not we could allocate money towards the ‘Still Dover Strong’ fund through the CenDel Foundation, which is a long-recognized foundation,” Councilman Anderson said.

“The only question was the language in the current policy could be interpreted to forbid closed groups. The intent was never for a broad-based local group.”

The policy was clarified to read, “Community enhancement funds may be used to aide nonprofit assistance for those who suffered from natural or manmade disasters that effect multiple household members within the city limits.”