Christian Mercurio and other members of the community, including Rome Rotary President Cameron Stewart, spoke at length during the public portion of the meeting in favor of using American Rescue Plan Act funding to help pay for the SFM Memorial Skatepark at Bellamy Harbor. There will be more fundraising events in the future, they said. The project has raised more than $500,000 so far, but is still short the more than $1 million needed for Phase 1 of construction. The Mercurio family has asked the council to consider using some of the remaining ARPA funding to close that funding gap.