By Noah Zucker

MILFORD — As part of the federal government’s American Rescue Plan — a $1.9 trillion COVID-19-relief bill — Milford’s municipal government will receive about $5.98 million.

“We are to get it in two separate deposits. One will be in May of this year, and the second deposit will be in May of next year,” City Manager Mark Whitfield said Monday. “All the money will need to be spent or turned back by December 2024.”

The announcement followed a long session during which council discussed parts of the five-year capital improvement plan pertaining to the Public Works Department. For that presentation, Public Works Director Mike Svaby and some of his co-workers outlined what they expect the department to spend on vehicles, equipment and construction projects through 2026.

Council also received a monthly update from the police department. Some took the opportunity to discuss a large drug bust and to probe some recent high-profile violent crimes in the area.

Mayor Archie Campbell congratulated Chief Kenneth Brown on “the largest drug bust in Milford,” which happened last month. He wanted to “compliment them on an excellent job. Well done.”

The bust, in the 400 block of North Street, yielded two handguns, 1,919 baggies of heroin, 81 grams of marijuana, 360 grams of cocaine, three vehicles, $17,670 and 132 oxycodone pills. Police brought charges against 38 people as a result of the investigation, although only 13 were charged that day.

Councilman Andrew Fulton wanted to know about violent crime rates in the city.

“How do we stand on violent crime? Is it going up, staying the same? Because we don’t really have a tracker on that,” he said.

“In many ways, some of our violent crime, such as armed robberies, is down,” Chief Brown said. “But the drug violence and the shootings are still where they were or up. It’s a constant struggle.”

Later, council granted the Greater Milford Chamber of Commerce a waiver to create a beer garden in Bicentennial Park as part of its Riverwalk Freedom Festival on Sept. 18. They also approved $30,000 in funding for the event, which will go toward advertisements and entertainment. Last year, the event was canceled due to the pandemic.

“It’s basically just in the gated, closed-in area in Bicentennial Park, which would be the Red, White and Brew Garden,” Jo Schmeiser, the chamber’s executive director, said of the limited area where alcohol would be served. “It’s not like we’re going to have people with alcohol walking around the park. It’s going to be in a fenced-in area. We’ll have people checking IDs coming in and out.”

While everyone who spoke expressed excitement about the event, some council members did wonder what would happen in the case of another COVID-19 cancellation.

“Not to be a naysayer or anything, because I love this festival, but what are the plans in case there’s a big uptick and they shut everything down again?” Councilman Fulton asked.

“We do plan on working very closely with the Department of Health and Social Services,” said Angela Dorey, the chair of the chamber’s Freedom Festival board. “Hopefully, things will improve. Because it’s outdoors, hopefully, we can spread people out. We have plenty of room to be socially distanced.”

She said that “if the numbers get bad enough to where we couldn’t proceed with having the festival, then that’s what we would have to do. We would follow the state’s guidelines and the governor’s guidelines.”

Councilman Todd Culotta wondered if and how the city would recoup its financial contribution in that event.

“Should it be canceled, what is our recourse since we’ve already given you the funding?” he asked. “We ran into that problem with (Downtown Milford Inc.) and the (Bug & Bud) Festival.”

Ms. Dorey and Ms. Schmeiser said that while advertising money couldn’t be returned, they were confident in their ability to get refunds or rain dates on the deposits they put down on entertainers.

City Solicitor David Rutt recommended solidifying that in the contracts.

“I would suggest that when you have these contracts or enter into these contracts, you put in a clause that says in the event of COVID, they would refund or else carry this forward to the next event,” he said.

Both chamber representatives agreed.

All the council members who shared their thoughts were excited about the festival and agreed that it would be great for the city if it could happen safely.

“I really hope nothing goes the other direction to keep it from happening because everyone really needs this,” Vice Mayor Jason James said. “Milford needs this, in my opinion.”

Finance also was a common topic at Monday night’s meeting. Conversations about municipal budgets are often very complex, but Finance Director Lou Vitola and Vice Mayor James have now blocked out a section of the monthly finance report that’s supposed to put the city’s budget in terms the average person can understand.

“I’m calling it a ‘Year-to-Date Actual Statement of Revenues and Expenditures,’” Mr. Vitola said.

“This statement is important because it’s going to bridge the gap between what we’re required to do in the (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) world versus what our leadership, our elected officials and a lot of our citizens are more accustomed to looking at when they think of financial statements,” he said.

While the balance sheet is more similar to what can be found in the private sector, Mr. Vitola said the fact that governments don’t necessarily operate for profit changes the terminology and the way certain things are calculated.

“We have what’s called a statement of revenues and expenditures and changes in net position,” he said. “Whereas in the private sector, your net income is going to contribute to your retained earnings on the balance sheet, in the municipal world, our revenues minus expenses leave a change in net position.”