Groton — Should the town allocate federal coronavirus relief funds — and how much — toward items, such as high-speed broadband, eviction assistance, an indoor aquatics facility, child care services and small-business grants?

Those are some of the questions being asked as residents weigh in on how the town should use its $8.6 million in coronavirus pandemic relief aid from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The town has a “Budget Simulator” tool on the Greater Groton website, greatergroton.com, in which people can specify how much they think should be allocated toward proposed categories, said Kevin Fitzgerald, ARPA coordinator for the town, who is raising awareness about the tool. Those categories include contingency funds, housing, infrastructure improvements, community programs, economic development, public buildings, quality of life and essential services.

“The Budget Simulator features spending categories with drop down arrows to provide details on potential allocations for infrastructure investments, economic recovery initiatives and quality of life improvements,” Fitzgerald wrote by email. “The Budget Simulator’s users are asked to increase and decrease the listed allocations and share their ideas for using ARPA funds to support Groton’s long-term pandemic recovery.”

Residents can increase or decrease how much they think the town should spend on potential items, including eviction assistance, public housing repairs, housing rehabilitation, high-speed broadband internet service, green sidewalks and bikeways, green infrastructure and fixing outfalls, sewers, social services, child care services, the purchase and redevelopment of vacant properties, commercial infrastructure grants, small-business grants, municipal building upgrades, library upgrades, parks and recreation outdoor facilities, fire and safety facilities, premium pay for life safety workers, expanded health care capacity and public transportation.

The budget simulator asks people if the town should hold 20% of the available funding for emergency funds, if the town should build an indoor aquatics facility with a heated therapy pool and if the town should allocate 1% of its funds toward arts and culture, as requested by the Southeastern Connecticut Cultural Coalition.

People also can add comments.

The U.S. Department of Treasury has rules on what municipalities can spend ARPA funds on, including adapting to COVID-19, business relief, child and family services, housing and hunger, infrastructure improvements and modernization and technology, according to Fitzgerald.

Residents weighed in during two public meetings last fall on how they thought the town should use its funds.

“This initial call for public input received 246 responses from in-person and online submissions,” Fitzgerald said. “Town of Groton departments also offered early proposals and insights on needs that could be addressed with recovery funds. 55 Project Ideas were collected via public meeting, email and GreaterGroton.com with an estimated $32 Million in requests. The projects were then weighted based on public votes and filtered to omit proposals that are ineligible for ARPA funding.”

The most popular and eligible project ideas then were included in the budget simulator, he said. Overall, the proposed project ideas total $13.6 million — more than the town has ARPA money to fund — so people start off with a deficit in the budget simulator.

Fitzgerald described it as “a valuable method for collecting public input as it places respondents in a deliberative decision-making role to consider potential uses as alternatives and indicators of residents’ priorities as Groton recovers from the pandemic.”

Fitzgerald said the town is trying to get as much feedback as possible this month. He said he is meeting with residents at events every day and sharing the budget simulator "on every platform to promote this opportunity for people to add their 2 cents to this $8.6 Million investment in the Groton community."

“We’re trying to gather as much data as possible in March to inform our Needs Assessment for Groton’s Long Term Recovery Committee,” he said. The committee "will use the public’s input and the priorities presented in the Needs Assessment to submit an ARPA Spending Plan to the Groton Town Council.”

The budget simulator is available at bit.ly/gtbudgetsim.

People with questions or who want more information can contact Fitzgerald at kfitzgerald@groton-ct.gov or (860) 446-5983.

k.drelich@theday.com