FAIRFIELD — Recommendations on spending the town’s remaining pandemic relief funds were met with backlash at a council meeting Wednesday night.

Town Manager Michelle Flewelling read a list of recommendations for what’s left of Fairfield’s American Rescue Plan Act, including paving roads, replacing the fire chief’s vehicle, providing a new drug analyzer for the police department and upgrading the town website. It also included smaller allocations that she characterized as “nice to have” items, such as new tables for the town office, new chairs for councilors and updated furniture for the community center and library that were not well received by residents at the meeting.

The ARPA funds could have been used to help people in need, said Sabrina Williamson, a Fairfield resident who runs programs at Victor Grange No. 49.

“They got this given to them at COVID time,” Williamson said. “Why have we not used it for people in our town that have been struggling? And then what they were using that for, for furniture to sit their butts on, when we’ve got people that don’t have skirting around their trailers. Whether they’re older or not, our town has got people that are struggling — buy them some skirting, do something like that, but it should be going to the townspeople.”

Fairfield has $173,967.18 in funds remaining from the initial allocation $692,798.18 in pandemic relief funds for local governments. The money was to be used for “assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or to aid impacted industries,” according to the act.

Town officials must decide how the funds will be used by Dec. 31, and they must be spent by 2026.

New guidance about ARPA obligations was sent out Dec. 9 by the National League of Cities.

While officials understood they had to obligate ARPA funds by the end of 2024, Flewelling said the definition of obligating was misunderstood. She had originally reported to the U.S. Treasury that Fairfield’s funds would be used for  revenue replacement, and she thought this filled the requirement.

When town officials realized specific project descriptions were required, only a few days remained to pull together a list and notify councilors before Wednesday’s meeting. Although the process was last-minute, Flewelling said the list covered most relief categories, including emergency services, revenue loss, utilities and services for the public.

“Anytime you spend any sort of public funds, you weigh the benefits to the community and what those funds are going to do,” Flewelling said. “We have had a lot of dialogue in the community over the last several years about improvements to our outdoor recreational spaces or improvements to things that are services that people use.”

Fairfield’s ARPA funds have been spent on staff bonuses, paving, Delta Ambulance services, a new car for the code enforcement officer and other departmental improvements.

Williamson said the announcement came as a surprise, and she would’ve liked to see residents included in the conversation earlier.

“I know it was last minute that they had to use it, but they’ve had this money for a long time, obviously,” Williamson said. “I didn’t know much about it until the other night, really, and when I found out it was given through the COVID epidemic: well, why haven’t we spent it on people that needed it before that? Why did we wait until the last year to actually, all of a sudden have this, ‘We’ve got to hurry up and delegate this money.'”

Furniture became a larger consideration during COVID-19, Flewelling said. Indoor seating was distanced, and fabric-covered chairs like those in the library were difficult to disinfect. Even for coming flu seasons, Flewelling said that easy-to-clean furniture is important.

She said she included “nice to have” items because they are one-time expenses that wouldn’t ordinarily be deemed important enough to come out of taxpayer dollars. Using ARPA funds could open the possibility for different types of spending, Flewelling said.

“Of course, they are taxpayer funds, but they were not funds that were derived from local property taxes,” Flewelling said. “So when you have funds that you have the availability to use for that, ordinarily we would be thinking about whether or not it’s worth increasing property taxes. Which is why these were kind of a little outside of that, because we knew we weren’t going to raise anything for property taxes to make these expenditures.”

After debate among council members, the list was revised to remove some “nice to have” items and dedicate more money to paving, earning council approval.

Williamson said she felt they struck a good compromise.

“Paving does help your community, so does the fire department and the police department,” Williamson said. “I mean, they work with poor people every day. So put it towards that, not where you’re gonna sit your fanny. There’s other resources than tax dollars that you could put furniture on to — use that money, not the emergency money.”