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CPC to mull over $85,140 in requested grants

Date: 12/15/2008

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



LONGMEADOW Over the next few weeks, the town's Community Preservation Committee (CPC) will be reviewing the applications it received before the Dec. 1 deadline to see which projects merit funding.

Public hearings on the proposed projects will begin in January.

Last year, the CPC had 12 project applications submitted, and six of those were approved to be funded by residents at a town meeting. The funds for the project come from the Community Preservation Act (CPA), which enables cities and towns in Massachusetts to adopt a property tax surcharge for community housing, historic preservation, open space and recreation. The tax surcharge in Longmeadow is one percent.

This year, the CPC received four applications.

"The big problem is we have ideas for recreation projects, but there's no open land," Bill Hoff, chair of the CPC, said. The current legislation allows for the purchase of open land to develop recreation projects upon, but recreation projects can not be built on current open land.

Of the 12 applications submitted in 2007, half were denied funding for this reason.

"There is talk of changing that law in the next legislative session," Hoff added.

The projects submitted in 2008 are requesting a total $85,140 in funding an amount the CPC will have no issues in covering. Hoff said the CPA currently has $565,000 available.

"We would always like to see more [applications]," Hoff said.

The proposals submitted will be posted on the CPC's Web site (www.longmeadow.org/towngovt/commpreservation.htm), and public comments will be gathered both at CPC meetings and via the Web site.

The CPC meets the first and third Wednesdays of each month until the vetting process is complete. Meeting places will be posted on the Longmeadow home page calendar; meetings will usually begin at 7 p.m.

"We're excited about this year's applications," Hoff said. "They all did appear to fit into CPA guidelines."

For more information about the CPC, e-mail the committee at longmeadowcpc@yahoo.com.