In the final days of 2024, as towns across Plymouth County worked to meet federal deadlines for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, Hanover fell behind. Applications languished, key staff departed, and communication with the county deteriorated. By year's end, more than $1.1 million in federal aid that the town had been eligible for was redirected elsewhere.
At a recent Select Board meeting, frustration erupted.
"$1.1 million to the Town of Hanover right now is a lot of money," said Select Board Member Rhonda Nyman. "Is this a political game? I would like to get to the bottom of it."
What followed was a firestorm of finger-pointing, political accusations, and intense scrutiny of how a high-stakes federal grant program unraveled. Town and county officials traded sharp criticisms in public meetings and over the airwaves. Social media posts fueled community outrage. And behind the scenes, a paper trail of missed emails, deadline extensions, and unanswered questions painted a stark picture of potential breakdowns, with tangible financial consequences for local residents.
South Shore Times reviewed extensive public records, emails, and meeting transcripts, and interviewed officials from both sides of the dispute. What emerged is a complex timeline of warnings issued, deadlines repeatedly extended, and decisions postponed, culminating in a frantic push to secure millions in federal relief dollars before the window irrevocably closed.
Understanding ARPA
ARPA was signed into law in March 2021 as part of the federal government's comprehensive effort to support pandemic recovery. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package included direct aid to state and local governments to help them address public health challenges, restore local services, and support economic recovery efforts.
ARPA followed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which Congress passed in March 2020. The CARES Act provided immediate emergency relief at the onset of the pandemic, including short-term funding for medical response, protective equipment, and emergency services.
Compared to CARES, ARPA came with more detailed federal guidance and stricter reporting requirements. Local governments were required to obligate, or commit, funds by December 31, 2024, and spend them by December 31, 2026.
A Level of Government Generally Unseen, At Least in Massachusetts
For many South Shore residents, county government rarely enters public consciousness, aside from the occasional election or appearance on a ballot. That's in part because, across Massachusetts, county government has largely faded from public view.
Most county governments in the state were abolished in the 1990s, as financial and operational responsibilities were shifted to the state. In 2010, the state also took control of sheriff's departments, removing another major function from county oversight.
Plymouth County is one of a small number of counties that still maintains an active government structure. The county is overseen by three elected commissioners and continues to operate administrative functions, including the Registry of Deeds and the management of certain federal funds, and operates a regional retirement system for municipal employees.
But the county's future remains precarious. Discussions about the necessity of Plymouth County government continue today, according to elected officials who spoke with the Times. As Plymouth County Commissioner Jared Valanzola told Boston.com in 2023, "if we screw up, we will be on the chopping block."
In many other states, however, counties play a much larger role. Many maintain roads and bridges, provide public health services, and administer elections. And under a number of federal government grant programs, according to Plymouth County Treasurer Thomas O'Brien, only counties are eligible applicants.
The central role played by counties in other states was a fundamental reason for giving them a pivotal role in the distribution of ARPA funds.
"The American Rescue Plan recognizes that counties are essential partners in our national recovery," said former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a 2021 statement. "These funds are intended to meet the needs of local communities, and we trust local leaders to know what their communities need most."
A County-Run Program
After distributing CARES Act funding during the pandemic, with lower overhead than the state, Plymouth County opted to directly manage ARPA funds as well. County officials say the approach allowed them to support towns more effectively while minimizing costs.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts initially opposed the county's plan to distribute funds, arguing that it should be run by the state.
"In hindsight, it was very good that we did it," said O'Brien. "It helped our relationship with our communities. They were very pleased and impressed with how we managed that money. They were particularly complimentary of the audit service that we provided."
Under CARES, the county distributed $87 million to towns, nearly doubling what they would have received had the state managed the funds. That experience shaped the decision to manage ARPA funding directly.
"We were able to directly get it to them, kept our administrative costs low and didn't spend it on our own resources," O'Brien said. "We got it back to the community."
Plymouth County received more than $100 million through ARPA. To support funding distribution, the county launched a website — plymouthcountyarpa.com — where towns could find their allocation amounts, guidance documents, and details about eligible project categories. By September 2021, the site was live and included all relevant instructions.
"We had created a website; towns knew how much they were eligible for. It was all available online," O'Brien said. "We set up a rubric. We had Zoom meetings with them to explain the process. As I sit here, I can tell you that 80 percent of the questions, maybe 85, could have been answered if they looked at the website."
The county also retained legal and audit support, including CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) and Mintz Levin, to help towns comply with federal guidelines. Those firms provided the first layer of review, followed by a second audit firm, the county comptroller, and then the commissioners themselves.
"We retained the services of a more robust attorney group, Mintz Levin, and a more robust accounting group, CLA, one of the biggest," O'Brien said. "And we negotiated some very favorable terms."
The concern was that the ARPA funding came with a catch: spend it correctly within specific grant categories and report on that spending according to federal requirements, or the federal government could take back - or "clawback" - those funds from towns. According to O’Brien, the move to hire multiple firms was aimed at identifying and rectifying potential issues before submissions reached the federal level, thereby safeguarding municipalities from the risk of fund recoupment.
The support was provided at minimal or no cost to towns.
"That level of review made a lot of sense. It really protected the towns to make sure they were following the rules," O'Brien said. "We felt that we had a good system in place to help our communities."
County leaders say their approach not only avoided clawbacks but became a model for other counties in Massachusetts and beyond.
"We're pretty proud of the project," O'Brien said. "We're surprised there's any consternation at all at any level because it's been just recognized not only here locally...but by the other counties."
As an additional measure to ensure that all of the available funds remained in Plymouth County, O’Brien asked that all communities submit an additional grant, equal to ten percent of their total allocation. These grants were only to be awarded at the last minute. Hanover was one of the towns that submitted such a grant: $268,345 for FY2026 town staff salaries. The application was ultimately rejected, according to records, because it was outside of the allowable funding window. FY2026 begins on July 1, 2025.
An Injection of Politics
While Plymouth County and cities and towns worked to finalize their applications for ARPA funding in the second half of 2024, another drama was unfolding: a contested race for Plymouth County Commissioner. Unlike most town races, county races are partisan. And incumbents Greg Hanley, a Democrat from Pembroke, and Valenzola, a Republican from Plymouth, were up for re-election in the 2024 Massachusetts general election. Both faced challenges in the primary and general elections.
The Democratic primary featured Nyman, Hanley, and Scott Vecchi, while the Republican primary included Valanzola and Anthony O'Brien. The general election was contested between the top two Democratic and Republican primary winners: Nyman and Hanley for the Democrats, and Valanzola and O'Brien for the Republicans. Ultimately, Valanzola and Hanley secured the two commissioner seats.
During a forum hosted by the Plymouth Area League of Women Voters, the proposed development of a county-owned property in Plymouth emerged as an issue of heated debate. With rumors swirling about the fate of the property, the challengers derided the incumbents' transparency.
Nyman highlighted the need for increased transparency, particularly regarding the recording and accessibility of commission meetings. She noted that the commission had only recently begun recording meetings, stating, "As a candidate for county commissioner, I'm already making a difference because this is one of my campaign promises that I have been working on since February."
Valenzola responded by acknowledging the commission's efforts toward transparency, saying, "We have been recording our meetings for the last several months, and those meetings have been recorded and those meetings will be uploaded to YouTube."
"Honestly, it was all pretty tame stuff based on political campaigns I've seen around here," said one elected official. "It wasn't like any one candidate entered the race and said I'm going to target these people to bump them off the commission."
Any hatchet seemed buried until Valenzola took to the airwaves of WATD in early April of 2025 to share his pointed critique of Hanover's leadership.
"At least one select board member in [Hanover] is completely asleep at the switch and has let that town's finances go completely rudderless," Valenzola said, clearly referring to Nyman. "I mean, how is it that a town like Hanover is in the position it is in financially? It's mind-boggling."
"Their select board member, who ran for county-wide office and was sitting in our meetings hellbent on making sure they got broadcast, could have cared less to pay attention to the actual content to realize that her town missed out on $1.1 million," Valenzola continued.
Those comments sparked indignation among local Hanover officials, particularly members of the town's select board.
Select Board Chairwoman Vanessa O'Connor said that she was "horrified to find that one of our elected officials is sitting there kind of bad-mouthing local elected officials and employees that are stepping up to run for positions and to engage and mocking them for political successes or failures that they've had."
"I'd like to see the county come in that's supposed to be representing us and seems to have plenty of time to talk bad about people on the radio, come and have a conversation," O'Connor continued.
Select Board Voted to Place Responsibility for ARPA Submissions with Town Manager
In an October 18, 2021, meeting, the Hanover Select Board voted unanimously to designate Town Manager Joe Colangelo and then-Finance Director Chelsea Stevens as the officials responsible for managing the town's applications for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding through Plymouth County.
Under the motions approved by the board, the finance director was authorized to prepare and enter grant application information into the county's ARPA portal. The town manager was given the authority to "approve, finalize, and submit on behalf of the town any such ARPA grant application and to make all representations and certifications required to be made on behalf of the town of Hanover to complete each such application."
"As the liaison to the Plymouth County Advisory Board, I actually was briefed on a lot of the procedures and things like that," Nyman said at the time. "So, it seems to make sense to me that that's how it should be done. Your finance director and your town manager should be the ones who are actually handling the process of that and administering, making sure everything works with the funds."
The Final Months of a Three-Year Program
According to records reviewed by South Shore Times, Plymouth County provided multiple deadline extensions and ongoing support to help towns access ARPA funding. Hanover submitted most of its applications after the county's original deadline had passed.
The county initially required all applications to be submitted by June 30, 2024, in order to allow time for a rigorous review process before the federal obligation deadline. When it became clear that some towns were behind, the county extended the deadline twice—first to September 30, then to October 24, 2024.
"We set a deadline. We recognized that a handful of our communities—not just Hanover—were, I won't say struggling, they were behind," said Valanzola. "We extended it for their benefit."
Records show Hanover's first application to the county was submitted on September 8, 2022. The town’s next submission wasn't until August 1, 2024, nearly two years later. In fact, of the $3,118,893 in ARPA submissions by the Town of Hanover, 87 percent were submitted after the original deadline of June 30, 2024.
"Your first submission isn't until September 2022. Your first deadline is June 30, 2024. Your next submission isn't until August 1, 2024," O'Brien said. "That tells the story."
Emails reviewed by South Shore Times show a steady stream of reminders - including county-wide coordination meetings via Zoom - updating town officials on the approaching deadlines and subsequent extensions.
On June 11, 2024, Gertrude Ward of CliftonLarsonAllen, working on behalf of the county, sent an email to Hanover, which included both Stevens and Colangelo, notifying them directly of deadlines.
"We also reviewed the Town's total expenditure to date and found that out of your total allocation of $2,617,954.85, you have applied for $396,192.61, leaving $2,221,762.24 still to be applied for," read the email. "Lastly, are you on track to fully obligate your allocation by 9/30/2024 with all expenditures being completed by 12/31/2026?”
More than two months later, on August 14, 2024, Ward emailed the town again, indicating that she had not received a response.
As far back as November 2021, Hanover had compiled a list of capital projects that it intended to submit under ARPA or pay for through other funding sources. In the fourth draft of the "Fiscal Year 2023 + 5-Year Capital Plan," which is available on the town's website, projects were color-coded to identify potential funding sources. The document outlines $2.1 million in projects that the town planned to submit through the ARPA program, although it is unclear whether or not each project fit eligibility categories for ARPA funding. Applications to fund most of those projects were not submitted to the county until nearly 33 months later.
In a statement to South Shore Times, Colangelo pointed to the complexity of the Sylvester Building project as a cause for delay, noting that it took over a year to complete design work, develop bid documents, and follow state procurement laws. He emphasized that despite these challenges, they were on track to meet the County's deadline for obligating ARPA funds.
A Chaotic Rush to the Finish for Hanover
Hanover's effort to secure federal ARPA funding in the final days of 2024 was marked by staff turnover and, ultimately, a rush to meet end-of-year deadlines that resulted in a high rejection rate.
At the April 2025 meeting, Colangelo told Select Board members that the town was not informed that its projects might be ineligible until late September.
"We did not receive any feedback that would lead us to believe that any of these projects would not be eligible for funding until starting around September 30th," Colangelo told Select Board members in April. "It is very unfortunate, and I'm certainly as disappointed as anyone."
That September 2024 feedback, however, came in response to funding applications that had only just been submitted days earlier. Katherine Pomeroy of CliftonLarsonAllen did indeed identify issues with Hanover's submissions, but she also provided guidance on how the town could revise its applications to meet federal eligibility requirements.
Throughout October, Pomeroy and Stevens exchanged multiple emails seeking additional information and clarification to move the applications forward. That progress was disrupted in November when Stevens resigned from her position.
Pomeroy continued efforts to complete the submissions, emailing Stevens on November 19, 2024. Colangelo, who was copied on the original messages, replied a week later: "Chelsea left us for another job about two weeks ago. Is there a time we can have a quick call?"
Email records obtained by South Shore Times show a flurry of correspondence between Colangelo and Pomeroy in mid-December, on which O'Brien and his deputy, Matthew Hanley, were copied. The emails reflect ongoing attempts by CliftonLarsonAllen to resolve outstanding issues.
According to public meeting records, county officials continued to meet through the end of December in an effort to process last-minute submissions.
"I approached the commissioners again and said, listen, I think we're going to need to extend it one more time," O'Brien said. "I think you're going to need a meeting on December 30th and December 31st so that any last-minute applications you can vote to obligate."
Despite those efforts, nearly half, about $1.5 million, of Hanover's ARPA submissions were either rejected for noncompliance, cancelled due to lack of response, or withdrawn by the town before the end of 2024, according to county records. All of the impacted applications were filed after September 15, 2024.
"There's only so much handholding we could do along the way," O'Brien said. "But we felt very confident that we had really afforded everyone as much of an opportunity to access these resources as possible, to use them correctly and to make sure nothing was returned to the US Treasury."
The Fallout
A review of minutes and footage of Hanover Select Board meetings for 2025 shows no mention of ARPA funding or submission issues prior to April 7, 2025. That's after Valanzola's radio show broadcast, and after then-Select Board Candidate Nick Spolsino posted a selection of emails between Plymouth County and Hanover officials on Facebook.
Town officials contend that they didn't miss any deadlines and that the county should have done more to aid Hanover in the process. Colangelo pointed to a February 2024 spending plan that the counties asked communities to compile.
“We had supplied the Treasurer with a highly detailed memorandum on February 29, 2024, for the uses of these funds and under which category we would be applying for. We expected feedback if there was a potential issue,” Colangelo said. "Plymouth County had all the information necessary in February 2024 to provide us with suggestions on how to ensure our applications would be funded… it is quite disappointing that did not happen.”
O'Brien, in response, points to multiple communications from Plymouth County to towns, including on the county's ARPA website, that specifically state that grants would not be reviewed for eligibility until they were submitted through the application portal.
"On January 5, 2024, I sent out a Memorandum asking for a detailed plan from each community to be submitted by March 1, 2024," said O'Brien. "Its purpose was to review pending deadlines, including the original deadline of June 30, 2024, ask for a closeout plan by March 1, 2024, from each community so that we could provide assistance where necessary, and to announce a virtual meeting where we reviewed deadlines and answered questions. The plans were for review purposes only and were not a substitute for submitting actual individual proposals through the official portal."
"Their argument that they could not provide us guidance prior to the official submittal is inconsistent with how they communicated ARPA eligibility," said Colangelo.
Colangelo, meanwhile, has filed a public records request with Plymouth County, seeking thousands of pages of documents detailing communications between the county and other towns regarding their ARPA applications. That request is pending.
The town's proposed ARPA-funded projects for the Sylvester School building remain on hold. The building houses Hanover's town offices and the local food pantry. With those applications either rejected or canceled, the town must now identify alternative funding sources before moving forward.
"We did not miss any deadlines," said Colangelo. "The County kept pushing the deadline back and we utilized this additional time to ensure that our submittals were based on true costs rather than estimates, especially for a project this large, because this was a reimbursement program."
"They missed the most important deadline, which was the last one," Valanzola said.
About the South Shore Times
The South Shore Times is an independent, locally-owned digital news platform, free to readers, that covers communities south of Boston. Our articles are written by South Shore residents, not AI.