Agawam teams up with East Longmeadow for block grant try

Date: 10/26/2011

Oct. 26, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — In the highly competitive world of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, it’s sometimes difficult for smaller communities such as Agawam to compete for awards that would benefit their low and moderate-income residents.

“We [tried] last year and our application was well-prepared, but it is so competitive that we missed it by two points,” Deborah Dachos, director of Agawam’s Office of Planning and Community Development told Reminder Publications. She said the community did receive some CDBG funding in 1983, but has not had a successful application since that time.

To up their chances of securing funding in this grant cycle, the town is taking a suggestion from Andrew Loew, senior planner with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC): Agawam is going to submit a joint application with the town of East Longmeadow.

“The state has been prioritizing regionalization efforts for the last couple of years,” Loew said. “You actually get a little extra credit for doing a regional application.”

The total sum the two towns will be applying for is $900,000, which Loew said would most likely be divided 50-50 between the two communities.

“We’re still a little early in the process to have exact figures, we still need to get cost estimates for the projects,” he added.

Loew said he and his colleague Chris Dunphy, who is working with East Longmeadow for the PVPC, are both assisting their respective communities with the process of evaluating and prioritizing projects that would fall under CDBG funding. Dachos said that because CDBG grant money comes to the state through the federal Department of Housing and Human Development, any grant awards can only be used for projects that will benefit the low and moderate income residents of a community.

Loew said both Agawam and East Longmeadow will have projects in the application, due in its final form in December, that are specific to their communities, “But they will also be collaborating on other projects such as housing rehabilitation, something that can be managed in tandem, and also exploring a planning project to bring [each town’s] public buildings into Americans with Disabilities (ADA) compliance,”

He said that project is called an ADA self-evaluation and transition plan.

According to Dachos, one of the proposed projects specific to Agawam is a plan for sidewalk improvements along a section of Springfield Street.

“The area that we have identified for sidewalk improvements is in a neighborhood that meets [the income] requirements,” she said. Other proposed projects include work with the town’s Housing Authority to make code improvements at its Colonial Haven and Brady Village properties.

Loew said at this point, Agawam has been identified as the lead community in the grant process, and as such, will host the public hearing on the grant proposal.

That public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. at the Roberta G. Doering School, 68 Main St., as part of the bi-monthly City Council meeting.

Dachos said low and moderate income residents interested in filling out pre-application forms for housing rehabilitation money received under the CDBG grant can access a form on the town’s website, www.agawam.ma.us. She said residents could also call the Planning Office at 786-0400 ext. 283 to request that an application be mailed to them, or stop by the office in person to obtain a form.









Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com