From WCVB Channel 5:
Northampton officials are giving a $20,000 grant to the Northampton Vibrance Committee to support the design and manufacture of four custom manhole covers. The grant is part of the city's plan to distribute $4 million from the American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 pandemic stimulus package.
The city was the original home of Mirage Studios, which created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series.
The information included with the grant decision indicates the four manhole covers would be located along Main Street.
Now that is some serious Turtle Power!
Of course, there will almost certainly be some people who are upset at the idea of taking all this taxpayer money earmarked for COVID relief and spending it on vanity sewers. But the counter-argument is that this is an investment in the tourist appeal of the small Western Massachusetts town — and that itself is a sort of economic stimulus. Plan a trip into town, visit Kelly Link at Book Moon Books, then get your photo taken lying in the middle of the street next to the Ninja Turtles manhole. It sells itself (and that is sort of the point of an economic stimulus package).
Northampton to spend $20,000 of ARPA money on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles manhole covers [WCVB-5]
