CEDA to apply for $825,000 grant

Jan 20, 2016

The Community and Economic Development Authority will seek $825,000 from the Community Development Block Grant, the same amount the town received last year.

The state grant would go towards the continuation of the housing rehabilitation program, five public service projects, a property assessment for Onset, streetscapes in Wareham Village, and staffing and administration.

Acting CEDA Director Peter Sanborn, who took over after the sudden resignation of Salvador Pina in November, presented the plan to Selectmen on Tuesday night.

The grant is due Friday, Feb. 12 by midnight, and Sanborn said “it is quite a Herculean effort.”

Working with the CEDA Board, Sanborn said five agencies, the maximum, were chosen to receive a total of $125,000 in the public services category. The CEDA staff issued a request for proposals from local and regional nonprofits and received seven applications.

Damien’s Place Food Pantry, the GATRA Transportation Program, Turning Point Day Resource Center and the Boys & Girls Club are on the list for another year. The Wareham Library Foundation is the fifth organization, and funds would support its program to provide free tutoring for adults and out-of-school youth.

Selectmen were particularly interested in a “slums and blight survey” that would evaluate the 800 land parcels, both public and private, in the “core” of Onset.

“This is a pretty substantial undertaking,” said Sanborn.

If funding were approved, the project would require evaluation of each property, any buildings on it as well as economic information.

“A lot of Onset was previously a majority low and moderate income, and it is not now, which is one of the factors that we considered in coming up with this recommendation,” Sanborn said.

Although it has an unfortunate name, he said, the slums and blight inventory would give the town more venues to seek funding to rebuilt and repair infrastructure. Twenty-five percent of the area would have to meet the criteria as substandard or blighted.

Selectmen questioned why certain low-income areas in the Onset area were not included, but Sanborn said, “Doing this doesn’t preclude doing another area down the road. I would strongly recommend that you go with this area.”

Another area on the grant is a request for $50,000 that would go towards design for the fifth phase of the Villages streetscape project.

Selectman Patrick Tropeano said he was heartened by the proposal, both the quick assembly of the plan and the fact that Onset is highlighted in it.

CEDA will move forward with the grant application. If awarded, the funds would be available around this time next year.