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Date: 8/24/2021
EASTHAMPTON – The city of Easthampton is looking to make vital water and sewer improvements on Cherry Street.
The city conducted a pre-application public hearing on Aug. 19 for fiscal year 2021 to discuss the Community Development Block Grant Program and receive input from residents who live on or around Cherry Street before officially applying for grant money for improvements.
According to Jamie Webb, the assistant planner for Easthampton, the CDBG program is a federally funded program that passes money through the state through a competitive grant process. Easthampton is considered a competitive grant community, which means they must apply to the state for funding every year.
The projects that involve this grant money typically revolve around infrastructure improvements, social services, and microenterprise business programs. The program must also benefit low to moderate income individuals or be related to an urgent need in the city.
“This application that we’re applying for is in conjunction with another grant application we submitted to the state for funding on Cherry Street for infrastructure improvements,” said Webb.
Reminder Publishing reported in October 2020 that Easthampton received $175,957 of Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) money to support Green Infrastructure Planning and Resiliency Design for the Cherry Street improvement project. That grant money was a part of the MVP program that focuses on climate change.
The application the city is looking to receive now is in conjunction with that MVP grant for street, sidewalks and sewer improvements on the Cherry Street location. These improvements include adding raingardens and fire retention swales to reduce the water that usually enters the brook in that area. There is also an outdated outfall on Cherry Street that the city is looking to update with the desired grant money.
“We’re still waiting word regarding the MVP application,” said Webb, during the public hearing. The maximum allowed from this grant is $800,000. According to Ted Harvey, the deputy director of community development at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC), said that towns and cities in the state are usually allowed $1.35 million over the span of two years.
Due to COVID-19, the state waived that requirement, which meant Easthampton could receive more money in this one fiscal year. If the old process was in place, then Easthampton’s FY20 statement would have limited them for FY21. The PVPC is working with the city on the application process.
“We are trying to accomplish all of the improvements on Cherry Street at one time,” said City Planner Jeff Bagg. “Cherry Street was identified in the DPW’s integrated water plan as one of the most dire neighborhoods for sewer replacement.”
Two Cherry Street residents who attended the meeting over Zoom stated that they experienced flooding from a sewer backup in their basement-one of the residents has lived in Easthampton for 10 years. Harvey said he is “cautiously optimistic” about Easthampton receiving the $800,000 because the city has been successful in the past working with the PVPC.
Easthampton received CDBG funds for improvements on Charles Street that occurred this summer.
The city is currently asking residents on Cherry Street to finish income surveys that were sent to their homes recently. According to Webb, the results would help Easthampton prove to the state that they deserve the money for the project.
The application for the grant is due Sep. 10. If Easthampton receives the money, the contract for the improvements will be implemented on Jan. 1.
Prior to the pre-application hearing, the city conducted a Community Development Fund microenterprise business grant assistance program. This program involves special CDBG money allocated because of COVID-19. The goal of this hearing was to update residents on where they are at with it.
The city was awarded $900,000 from this program, $783,000 was used to help microenterprise businesses in Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Hatfield, South Hadley, Westhampton and Southampton to help those businesses recover from the pandemic. The city is going through the Valley CDC to conduct this program.
So far, the city individually has committed $207,490 for this program out of that $783,000, but not all that money has been used yet. Therefore, the city is asking the community to see if there are any other business donors or microenterprise businesses that need some money due to COVID-19 losses. $25,000 maximum will be allowed per business.
This program goes until Dec. 31. There has been no indication that the deadline has changed.