A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Heck, it was a pandemic…it was the worst of times.

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were designed to help the country recover from the effects of the pandemic. For more information on how ARPA grants were to be distributed and the qualifications: State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Project NepTWNE was granted $1.5 million in ARPA funds to build a water research lab in the Union Fish Building as the ordinance was written: https://keepourlibrarypublic.com/faqs/#erie-county-documents-regarding-the-1-5-million-grant-to-gannon. Keep in mind these funds were granted to a private, religious university with a large endowment. Gannon still had remote classes during the pandemic: Gannon to pay $1.1 million to settle class-action suit over COVID-era remote instruction.

This has since morphed into a display at the Blasco Erie County Library instead of a research lab: https://www.gannon.edu/about-gannon/initiatives/project-neptwne/great-lakes-education-and-research-center/. Although Gannon’s marketing campaign states that it will include a NOAA Science on a Sphere, the lengthy application process was not started as of the public meetings for Project NepTWNE back in August.

Another project in town (Grow Erie at Savocchio Park. Urban agriculture site takes shape at Savocchio Park. When will it be ready?) was denied $750,000 by the county executive (Loss of funding puts Savocchio Park’s community garden ‘on the backburner’) Grow Erie is projected to generate $748,000 annually and create employment in a neighborhood that needs jobs and needed these funds. The people in this neighborhood didn’t have an endowment to fall back on during the pandemic.

So, we have a tale of two cities–one on the west side that could operate during the pandemic, one on the east side that could not. One that has an endowment, one that does not. One that got ARPA funds, the other that did not.

Please donate to fund our lawsuit.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

~Charles Dickens