Hosmer sees COVID relief funds a godsend for the city

LACONIA — Funds that are included in President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief plan will be critical to the city being able to continue services at the level residents expect, Mayor Andrew Hosmer said one day before the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill, the last step before the president signs it into law.

Hosmer made the remark during a virtual roundtable discussion which 1st District U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas held with several of the state’s mayors one day before the House passed the bill — called the American Rescue Plan — on Wednesday.

“This bill allows for the flexible funding of the municipal level like we felt was so necessary and critical,” Hosmer said. The $1.9 trillion package is an improvement over the COVID relief bill passed last year, he said, because it gives lower levels of government more leeway in using the funds.

Pappas told the group that the bill would provide $1 billion in assistance that would go directly to the state of New Hampshire, plus another $500 million that will be disbursed to counties, cities and towns in the state.

Hosmer said the new round of COVID relief funds will also enable Laconia to continue with some infrastructure projects as well as “to put the money where our mouths are to the extent where we can back up our essential workers,” including public works employees and first responders.

Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and Dover Mayor Robert Carrier said the money in the bill would be critical because it would allow their cities to use the funds to offset losses in some local revenue streams because of the pandemic.

Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard said the ability of cities and towns to continue operating as normal was critical to recovering from the economic dislocation caused by the pandemic.

“Cities and towns are the ones who are going to get us through this,” he said.