The Hampshire County Commission voted 2–1 to move the remaining $12,557 from a prior $350,000 ARPA commitment for the Central Hampshire Sewer Project into the construction portion of the project rather than toward legal fees.

Region 8 and Central PSD representatives had told the commission that the county committed $350,000 to front‑end design and engineering for decommissioning the Harvest Hills package plant and tying the system into the central system. A Region 8 representative said the county’s paperwork showed a $350,000 commitment, but that “Region 8 was not informed of this deallocation” when $12,557 was removed from the ARPA allocation. That deallocation prompted concern that the change could affect future grant applications.

Commissioners pressed staff and Region 8 on whether the $12,557 was being used for PSC (Public Service Commission) attorney fees. Several commissioners said they were unwilling to have county ARPA funds pay legal fees tied to disputes between the PSD and the town. As one commissioner put it, legal fights “whistle[] dixie all the way to the bank,” arguing the county should avoid subsidizing litigation costs.

Region 8 and county staff proposed budget revisions to move the $12,557 into region‑level administrative costs or back into construction. One staff member said USDA offered to cover the PSC attorney fees if the commission preferred that route. Commissioners asked for written assurances that reallocated funds would not be used for legal fees before consenting.

After the debate, the commission approved a motion to reallocate the remaining ARPA funds to a construction line item for the Central Hampshire Sewer Project. The vote was recorded as 2 in favor and 1 opposed; the dissent centered on whether the commission should accept reallocation without stronger written guarantees on allowable uses.

Next steps identified by staff included preparing the budget revision and returning the revised schedule for formal accounting and project management. Region 8 said it would prepare the requested paperwork and indicated the revision could take a few days to finalize.

The commission’s action affects a multi‑agency project whose other funding sources include USDA, WDA and CDBG, which staff and Region 8 said were part of the broader financing plan for decommissioning and system upgrades.