Penobscot County commissioners on Dec. 30 approved a series of allocations from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and commissioner funds for community organizations and county departments and directed the remaining ARPA balance to a county‑building HVAC upgrade.

Wendy, who presented the application review, said the predominant applications received were for District 1 and introduced the first request: "Their request is for 16,000," referring to Bangor Halfway House's renovation request. Commissioners debated recommended awards and made reductions to keep the slate within available balances.

The board approved the following community awards as the district‑1 slate: Bangor Halfway House — $16,000; Food and Medicine — $30,000 (reduced from a $41,500 request); Fresh Start — $20,000 (reduced from $28,000); Greater Bangor housing request — $7,500; Main Recovery Access Project — $7,068; Needlemount/Needlepoint recovery programs — $20,000; Partners for Peace — $30,000 (vehicle request removed from the slate and funds reallocated); Rate Response — $5,000; Wellspring — $18,000. Commissioner Cushing moved to approve the slate; the motion carried by voice vote.

The board separately approved a $40,000 award to the town of Newport for engineering studies related to the Sebasticook Lake watershed, and a $20,000 award to Breaking the Cycle from District 3 funds after Commissioner Marshall moved to reduce that organization’s request to $20,000 and allocate remaining district funds to county needs.

County departmental ARPA requests were discussed and approved. The sheriff’s office requests included replacement mobile radar units (listed in discussion as roughly $57,200) and AED replacements (about $36,250). Commissioners agreed to allocate $100,000 toward SRT night‑vision goggles and other SRT equipment rather than the larger figure initially discussed; they also approved one telescoping LED light tower at approximately $36,000 and a $100,000 contribution toward a fenced storage facility. Chair and staff noted other grant sources may offset some costs and advised against adding a 50‑bed shelter trailer at this time because of parking and facility constraints.

After approving the county requests, the board voted unanimously to designate the balance of ARPA funds to an HVAC project in the county building.

All motions on ARPA allocations and county equipment requests were approved by voice votes recorded as ayes from commissioners present. The board then approved warrants as posted and moved into executive session to discuss three personnel matters later in the meeting.

The county’s discussion included repeated questions about vehicle costs and available alternative funding sources for nonprofit partners; where applicants lacked separate funding to buy vehicles, commissioners removed the vehicle request from the slate and reallocated funds to other organizations. The board also noted that some county requests may be supplemented by state or other grants and that the storage facility scope had been scaled back compared with earlier, larger estimates.

Next procedural step: the board entered executive session to discuss the three personnel items listed on the amended agenda.