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Easthampton hosts CDBG hearing for New City improvements

Date: 2/21/2023

EASTHAMPTON — The city of Easthampton is looking to secure funding to support the development of final designs, construction documents and cost estimates for the first phase of the New City Neighborhood Infrastructure Improvements.

As a next step in the process, the city’s Planning Department hosted a pre-application public hearing on Feb. 9 to discuss the proposed Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for fiscal year 2022-23 to offer information before officially applying for grant money for the 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 it 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.

For the 2022-23 application specifically, the city wants to include the final design and creation of construction documents for the rehabilitation of public parks at the Parsons Street playground and Lincoln Street parcel, and the final design and creation of construction documents for the first phase of public infrastructure rehabilitation in the New City Neighborhood.

This first phase of public infrastructure rehabilitation will include water, drainage, green infrastructure, streets and sidewalks on Oakdale Place, Dartmouth Street, Exeter Street, Federal Street, Glen Cove Place and Emerald Place; and sewer on the aforementioned streets plus Lincoln Street, Harrison Avenue, Clinton Street, Maine Avenue and Lewandowski Avenue.

The plan is for the city to send an application to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) for $1.35 million in funding for these project plans relating to the New City Infrastructure Master Plan.

“The grant proposal that we’re looking at is a continuation of the previous work we’ve done in the New City neighborhood … culminated in the New City Infrastructure Plan,” said Webb, adding that the previous work was funded by the 2020 CDBG program.

Between fall 2021 and spring 2022, the city worked with Fuss and O’Neill to survey and assess the New City neighborhood infrastructure and conducted two public meetings to better understand the residents’ needs and desires in that neighborhood.

The meetings were successful in unveiling specific improvements for that area. “A lot of the infrastructure is over 100 years old,” said Webb. “The water, sewer and drainage structure all need to be replaced.”

According to Webb, there are opportunities for the city to add green infrastructure, parks and bicycle/pedestrian path amenities throughout the neighborhood.

The Planning Department will file the application to DHCD no later than March 3. If all goes according to plan, the city will be eligible to apply for construction funds for some of the design work in March 2024 with construction possibly beginning in September 2024.

“[The project] is ambitious but it’s not unlike any of our past CDBG projects where we took a neighborhood approach with design plans,” said City Planner Jeff Bagg.

The city is asking residents in that neighborhood to complete a SurveyMonkey regarding general income and household information. According to Bagg and Webb, CDBG projects cannot be funded unless this information is obtained by households who may benefit from this project. People can access the survey link here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S5BLHSC.

People can also visit the Easthampton website to learn more about the New City neighborhood improvements: https://www.easthamptonma.gov/568/New-City-Infrastructure-Improvements.