Letter From The Editor: How The $20K Grant Article - With Conflict Of Interest Implications - Got Written

The genesis for Beacon’s Community Investment Grant "Beacon Recreation Committee and City Face Scrutiny For Allocating 37% of $20,000 Community Investment Grant To Committee Member's Global Organization, Denying Food Benefits To Farmer's Market And More" did not start out as a hunt for details about the recipients, or about who didn’t get funded. It started out as a positive low-hanging-fruit piece, to announce the recipients. That was it. Something happy. Everyone wants something happy from A Little Beacon Blog, right? Right. This was an easy delivery.

Being that I missed my opportunity to share the announcement that the awards opened up for applications because we were in the throws of the genocide of Israel murdering Palestinians in February - we were trying to still publish Beacon content via 14 Days of Valentine’s Day Gift Guide - while publishing awareness pieces of the genocide.

In trying to find something easy and positive to publish, the Community Investment Grant seemed a no-brainer. But during the City Council Meeting announcing the awards, strange things happened. City Administrator Chris White began the presentation by throwing the Parks and Recreation Director Mark Price under the bus when Mark was not in attendance (Mark is normally a very punctual, well-spoken person). Chris announced: “I think Mark forgot.” Then, Chris definitively told us: “About half the Committee really was not interested in this task,” referring to vetting and recommending grant applicants.

Then, after Chris announced the winners - which he named by organization only - one Councilmember, Paloma Wake, asked him to describe on of the winners - The Sports Bra Project - because, she said: “It's not totally clear to me what the program does. Probably helpful for the community to hear how they can access this if it applies to them.”

Councilperson Amber Grant quickly flew in to vouch for the organization, saying she had Googled it, and it came up in an article at the local newspaper the Highlands Current that was published 2 months before the opening of the grant applications, of which one of the committee members Heidi Kitlas is married to a reporter there (Jeff Simms, but he did not write that article). Heidi had voted on the Sports Bra Project, but its founder Sarah, did not vote at all.

Amber encouraged viewers of the City Council meeting, and writers of the titillating Meeting Minutes, to also Google the article. Mayor Lee then also vouched for the organization, saying “I know it's a Beacon-specific organization.” I didn’t think about it until later, but neither of them, nor Chris, mentioned the name of the founder of the organization.

Ok. So all seemed legit, right? City Administrator Chris impatiently hurried this part of the meeting to close so that the City Council could vote on, it, which they did. Done. Money allocated.

But…that part about the Recreation Committee not being “interested” stuck. Who was on the Recreation Committee? Who are these people who are not interested in awarding money to community groups, when they are tasked with helping the City of Beacon serve people through recreational activities? It didn’t make sense. Thankfully, I had childcare for the evening. So I was able to continue on with research. Otherwise, I would have disappeared into Kid Land and forgotten all about it.

Off to Google I went. Found the Recreation Committee member names. Great. Next: Google the article about the Sports Bra Project like Amber told us to. Check. Name of Sara Dwyer-Shick was in the article. Went to the Sports Bra Project website. There were no names there. But exciting PR about them being featured in Australia! Then I read about their deliveries to Namibia. Great concept!

My article shifted to become about City Administrator Chris White’s quote that threw Mark Price and the entire Recreation Committee under the bus. Usually this happens in the basement of Town Hall in the meeting rooms, where people in different departments just rip each other apart. I witnessed it when I was Chair of the Spirit of Beacon Day. Being accustomed to cis white man patriarchal banter, I knew that people were just surviving down there around the meeting table and in the hallways. But when it makes its way up to the courtroom during City Council Meetings, it’s like…gross.

But whatever. Is is what it is. I went to copy/paste the names of the Recreation Committee into the article, and that’s when I recognized Sarah Dwyer-Shick’s name, as being the founder of the Sports Bra Project and a Recreation Committee Member.

I did a double-take. I basically did a quadruple take. I wanted to call someone to confirm, but who is there to call. Chris White has everyone on lock-down from answering questions to ALBB. I was on my own. I deep dove, and published the article.

The next night at a sports event, I heard from people who read the article. They said that their friends asked them about the findings in the article: “Is it true?” I said to the reader: “Even I (ALBB) had to ask myself 5 times if it was true! I couldn’t believe it!” I got more questions from people, asking what the Conflict of Interest Policy was for the Beacon Recreation Committee. I didn’t know!

Next day, I heard from more people. More than one person said: “I miss Randy. I voted for Lee, but I miss Randy.” Former Mayor Randy Casale was a gruff but firm person. Many were rubbed the wrong way with him. He got voted out to Lee. But. He usually duked it out with whoever to arrive at the answer that seemed correct. I liked that about him. I voted for him each time he ran.

Back to the article research. I went looking for the office on Henry Street of the Sports Bra Project that was pictured in the article, and I still haven’t found it. Maybe it’s being sublet from someone else in the only office building on Henry Street. Maybe it’s in a cute house or apartment there.

And that’s how this story happened.

City Of Beacon Plans To Prioritize How To Spend The $25K Food Grant Money From CARES ACT

Picture of pre-packed food prepared by the Beacon City School District Food Services Department. Example of free food distribution happening in Beacon since the pandemic, due to federal funding to all public school districts regardless of proving moderate or low income thresholds.
Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin

While this Valentine’s Day was an extra heavy one to bear, being that the pandemic continues and there was report of one little friend in an elementary school who did not bring classmates Valentine’s cards because both parents lost their jobs, the safety net for food insecurity showed signs of strengthening in Beacon, while affordable housing in a booming real estate market remains a threat to those looking to stay here.

During Monday’s City Council Meeting, after which the council discussed once again and voted on a years long recurring agenda item of viewsheds (ie what constitutes as a protected view when a developer or property owner is looking to build upon their land), as well as other items, the $25,000 CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) that Beacon was awarded from the CARES ACT via Dutchess County in December 2020, made its debut as a planned talking point for the City Council.

Councilmember Dan Aymar-Blair, who is an advocate for affordable housing and community services, asked the new City Administrator, Chris White, for an update on any progress made to get a study created and funded in order to see what kind of needs the people want for an expanded Recreation Department and possible new public building for activities and services. It was discussed during Budget Season (October-December) that a study on the Recreation Department could range from $25K-$50K. Another study on Digital Broadband access was also considered.

The Unspent $25,000 Food Grant Makes It To City Council’s Attention

Chris White responded by saying: “We are trying to work through all of the budget initiatives that you put into the 2021 budget, for now we had prioritized the Mental Health Worker, and we are then trying to do the Food Program. Mark Price from our Recreation Department is trying to figure out a mechanism for doing that, and for meeting the CBDG guidelines. I’ve talked to Mark about doing the Recreation Plan next, and both that and the Broadband study I think should come back to Workshop so that we can get our goals and what you envisioned there…I do want to get the Food Program off the ground first.”

Pictured here is City Administrator Chris White, and below him, Councilperson Dan Aymar-Blair.
Photo Credit: Screenshot of City of Beacon council 2/16/2021 meeting.

Dan said that he had forgotten about the grant, and applauded Chris for taking it. Chris added: “We [Chris and Mark] were trying to think ‘What can we do, and what makes a difference?’”

How Food Access Is Working Elsewhere In Beacon; Elevated Systems With Lower Red Tape Since The Pandemic Started

The Community of Beacon and the Beacon City School District have been pulling together to provide free food to people as easily as possible. For example, the Beacon City School District designed a system to deliver pre-prepped or made cafeteria food via their Remote Bus Delivery to any registered child in the District.

When that federally funded food service was started, it was pick-up only. Many families did not go to pick up, as they were working at home on digital meetings, or weren’t home. Community members volunteered to pick up for each other. Some families who were scarce in emergency savings felt like they didn’t deserve the food and didn’t want to take from others who needed it more, yet they themselves had lost their jobs. Delivery made a difference for food reaching people.

Groups such as Fareground, Beacon’s Salvation Army by way of Captain Leilani Rodríguez-Alarcón who used to actually cook and deliver food to children years ago when Beacon lost qualification for its Free Summer Meals Program, I Am Beacon (see their Thanksgiving story) and others have been working together to continue to circulate food to the community.

Bureaucracy In Free Food Distribution with Federal Or Local Requirements

Back in December 2020 when this grant was awarded, A Little Beacon Blog followed up with Mark to inquire as to any movement on the spending of the grant. At the time, he spoke of a time consumption of organizing the required income survey.

“Of the groups in Beacon who work in food security, everyone would need to give assurance. They would each need to do an income survey.” When asked by A Little Beacon Blog if this grant’s required documentation of proof of need made it difficult to spend, Chris expanded: “Grant funds are to be utilized for low to medium income families, like all CDBG funding. There is no proof of need that has to be validated. We will have to administer a income survey to insure the appropriate population is being served.”

While this may not account for families newly unemployed or economically stressed who would otherwise not fall into the low to medium income bracket on paper yet, Mark and Chris hope to use the existing food distribution point on Wednesdays at Memorial Park to collect information before the funds can be distributed. Said Chris to A Little Beacon Blog: “We plan to focus the funds on expanding food provided at the Wednesday food distributions so that we can simplify implementing the necessary income survey.”

A Little Beacon Blog reached out to Fareground to see if they had been approached about assisting in this grant. While they had not directly, co-founder Kara Dean-Assael, DSW said that their members do participate on regular calls with other food groups. Kara also provided guidance on how to implement a survey, stating:

“Our recommendation is to not make our community members 'prove that they are in need of food. The scarcity mentality or the thinking that people may take advantage is not something we want to support. However, i do understand that bureaucratic processes often require 'evidence' and so if it's truly required, we recommend these 2 questions which have been proven to indicate food insecurity:

To easily assess for FI, Hager et al. (2010) recommend the use of a 2-item screen that utilizes questions 1 and 2 of the Household Food Security Scale (HFSS), asking:

• “Within the past 12 months, we worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more” and

• “Within the past 12 months the food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.”

Kara continued: “Of late, this screen is used more often than the lengthy HFSS to assess FI risk (Garcia-Silva, Handler, & Wolfe, 2017; Helton, Cross, Vaughn, & Gochez-Kerr, 2018; Makelarski, Thorngren, & Lindau, 2015).”

Mark confirmed earlier that the Wednesday distribution at the Memorial Park location serves 150-200 cars per week, with the 9:30am Beacon Recreation Center distribution serving 75 families. Distribution lasts until the food runs out, which is early.

How does Mark envision the funding being used? “I would like to see it utilized to supplement and enhance the work already in place.” In terms of boots-on-the-ground knowledge of how people are needing the food, and best ways of getting it to them, Chris confirmed: “Mark participates in a bimonthly call with lots of the folks doing the work here in Beacon.”

Beacon Awarded $25K From CARES Act Funding via Dutchess County Through Block Grant (CDBG) For Food Purchasing - Spending It Is Next Step

Federal money was made available through the CARES Act for communities to apply for and be awarded money to spend on food security and/or ensuring safety for seniors at local senior centers. Dutchess County manages this money, and in a press release sent 12/22/2020, announced that all of the municipalities who applied for the money were awarded money, which was “based on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) income guidelines, for efforts to promote food security and safety at local senior centers to enable them to be open for seniors.”

Beacon applied for and was awarded $25,000 “for assistance to a local food bank to purchase food for distribution to low- and moderate-income households,” according to the press release. Beacon’s Director for Parks and Recreation, Mark Price, is the point person for the spending of this money, and says that spending the grant money is not so simple.

Because the money is federal, they require an “income survey” in order to prove the need a municipality says they have in their population. Says Mark: “The County was willing to fund a food purchase only, for moderate to low income families in Beacon. We have to give assurance to them that they are giving us money and we're using it for the population we say we are. Because we are using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money, there is usually a map that identifies the low to moderate areas (Editor’s Note: like with the small business Microenterprise Stabilization Grants currently available). When you use Block Grant monies, you are to use those to those areas. That map is slowly shrinking in Beacon. However, COVID funding doesn't use a map.”

How Does A Municipality Find The People To Prove The Need?

For this article, we asked Mark how he is going to find the people for the survey that identifies low to moderate income households. “We are hopeful that our Wednesday 9am free food distribution at Memorial Park, which serves 150-200 cars per week, in addition to our Wednesday 9:30am Beacon Recreation Center distribution to 75 families, will be a one-shot way to survey the need.”

The number of organizations who are offering food security services to people in need in Beacon has increased since the pandemic started in March 2020. “Of the groups in Beacon who work in food security, everyone would need to give assurance. They would each need to do an income survey. At this point, we are thinking that this one distribution location could be the most efficient way of getting a good sampling for the income survey. Some independent food security groups may need to do sampling for a month to get a good sampling.”

How Other Municipalities Proposed To Spend Money

Other municipalities made proposals for federal CARES Act funding based on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money guidlines, and were awarded. Ideas differed, and are included below:

City of Beacon: $25,000 for assistance to a local food bank to purchase food for distribution to low- and moderate-income households.

Town of Beekman: $20,000 for touchless bathroom fixtures for the Town’s senior program

Town of Dover: $17,200 award for substantive meals and home-keeping necessities for homebound seniors.

Town of East Fishkill: $20,000 award for HEPA sterilization units and UV air purifiers at the senior center.

Town of Hyde Park: $29,500 award for plexiglass partitions, air purifiers and UV-C lights, Wi-Fi network upgrades and 7 laptops at the senior center, as well as tent for outdoor programming.

Town of Poughkeepsie: $15,950 award for plexi-glass barriers, hand sanitizing stations, wall-mounted thermometers, HEPA filter, air purifiers, gloves/wipes/masks for the senior center.

Town of Pine Plains: $26,542 award for support to Willow Roots food pantry to purchase food for distribution to low- and moderate-income families.