ARPA Funding Informational Page

Dukes County has received a total of $3,666,538 from the ARPA funding approved by the federal government. After months of deliberations and input from a Steering Committee a decision was made to use most of the funding to improve the wastewater infrastructure on Martha’s Vineyard. $1,5M was approved to help fund the needed improvements at the Dukes County Airport Wastewater Facility and up to $1,440,000 are to be used to allow local Boards of Health to approve funding for upgrades and installation of individual septic systems with enhanced nitrogen reduction component.

The funding will be allocated for distribution per town as follows:

$315,000 Edgartown

$315,000 Oak Bluffs

$315,000 Tisbury

$180,000 West Tisbury

$135,000 Chilmark

$90,000 Aquinnah

$45,000 Tribal properties if desired

$45,000 Gosnold

Please review carefully all requirements in the Management Document, the Grant Application and Grant Agreement before submitting your application. For clarification please note that failing septic system is not needed in order to apply for funding. Installation of appropriate nitrogen reducing component as an add-on to you existing functioning Title 5 septic system is also eligible under this grant. Please note that there is an on-going maintenance required for these types of systems. Please check directly with the technology company about their maintenance (and testing) costs as these are not covered by the grant. (Estimates shared with us in October 2023 are $1,200-1,900 per year). 

The two companies that the local Boards of Health encountered installing the eligible types of septic systems on Martha's Vineyard are:

Nitrex System - Lombardo Associates

Pio@lombardoassociates.com   (617) 964-2924     www.lombardoassociates.com

 Nitroe System - Kleantu Wastewater Treatment Technologies info@cleantu.com       (800) 303-4787    www.kleantu.com

 

GRANT DOCUMENTS

Nitrogen Reducing Septic System Installation Management Document

Grant Application - Title 5 Design

Grant Agreement - Title 5 Design 

Grant Application - Installation

Grant Agreement - Installation

Applications and proof of income (i.e. most recent Form 1040 income tax return) shall be submitted to the respective Board of Health agent for your town:

Aquinnah - Marina Lent - health-agent@aquinnah-ma.gov

Chilmark - Anna McCaffrey - boh@chilmarkma.gov

Edgartown - Connor Downing - healthagent@edgartown-ma.us

Gosnold - Karen Walega - karenwalega06@gmail.com

Oak Bluffs - Garrett Albiston - healthagent@oakbluffsma.gov

Tisbury - Drew Belsky - dbelsky@tisburyma.gov

West Tisbury - Alex Lam - boh-assist@westtisbury-ma.gov

 

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Dukes County Commissioners created a ARPA Funding Steering Committee that is tasked to advise the County Commissioners how to spend the funding. The committee is comprised of three county commissioners: John Cahill, Don Leopold and R.Peter Wharton and three County Advisory Board members - selectmen: Bill Rossi, Skipper Manter and Jeff Kristal.

Press Release July 21, 2021

Letter of Inquiry and Suggested Guidelines

Deadline for submission of Letter of Inquiry to the Dukes County ARPA Steering Committee was extended to September 30th, 2021. The Steering Committee meetings were public and posted on the main county website calendar (zoom link included on the agenda). Recordings of the meetings are shared with MVTV for dowloading and posting on MVTV on demand under Dukes County Commissioners.The last meeting of the Steering Commitee where their recommendations to the County Commissioners were formulated was on November 9, 2021.

See documents attached below for more information and links to federal websites related to this topic.