Wilbraham's PARC grant application denied

Date: 11/1/2010

Nov. 1, 2010

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

WILBRAHAM -- The Parks and Recreation Department was denied a state grant that would have given an influx of funds to the proposed improvements to Spec Pond, but director Bryan Litz is still very optimistic about the project.

The town applied for the Massachushetts Energy and Environmental Agency's (EEA) Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities (PARC) grant, but was not one of the 21 communities chosen. Holyoke, Springfield, Westfield and Northampton were the communities in the Pioneer Valley to receive grant money. Boston was awarded four grants, according to Litz.

"There were a record number of applicants this year, so it's kind of bad luck for us," Litz said. "You never really know how many communities are going to apply for the grant. It's also geared towards larger communities, so we were already at a disadvantage."

Because the odds were long to begin with, Litz said the department developed contingency plans so it would not be blindsided if the grant was not awarded to the town.

"The grant was just one of three components to our plans. The grant was a component, CPA [Community Preservation Act] money was a component and fundraising was a component," Litz said. "If we batted 1.000, which was unlikely, we had a plan for that. If we batted .666, we had a plan for that and if we batted .333, we had a plan for that."

Litz also said that the amount of community support for the program has helped the department get much closer to its goal than originally projected and helps make the lack of grant money more bearable.

"Early on, businesses really started rallying around this idea," Litz said.

Between the fundraising efforts of the Wilbraham Friends of Recreation and money secured from the CPA budget, the department has approximately $700,000 at its disposal for the project.

"The Friends still are not done with their fundraising campaign, so I'm pretty confident we could reach somewhere between $1 million and $1.5 million," Litz said.

According to Litz, no decisions have been made about whether or not to use the money raised to do some of the work and apply for the PARC grant again next year in order to finish the job, but it has been discussed.

The town did put together a proposal that was comparable to that of larger communities. The evaluation is done by a points system and Wilbraham scored a 47. Ten communities that received grants scored between a 47 and a 52.

"One of the things we are considering is whether or not we can hold the CPA money over until next year and use it as the match to the grant," Litz explained.

The grant requirements state that the state must pitch in 64 percent of the project's projected costs with a cap of $500,000. Towns that receive the grant are required to match 36 percent.

Litz did admit that, without the PARC funds, improvement plans may need to be scaled back a bit.

"Instead of building the Taj Mahal of playgrounds, we might have to put in a smaller playground and things like that," Litz said. "We had contingencies and took that into account."