MONTPELIER – The Community Development (CD) Board met last Thursday with the Vermont Community Development Program (VCDP) staff to review applications for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery funds.
The recommendations will go to the Secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD), who will then make the final award decisions on behalf of the Governor.
Before voting on staff recommendation, Devon Hanna, Grants Management Analyst with the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development introduced each program category and gave a general overview of the requirements of each. Hanna discussed program area requests in comparison to program area allocations. He gave a description of the staff analysis process and presented all of the funding requests.
ExecuSuite was recommended for a housing grant covering $2,000,000 of its $2,380,000 request to cover a portion of the $4,580,000 cost of the Plainfield Inn Historic Restoration Project
Before receiving that approval, board member Maura Collins had asked what due diligence or underwriting was done by Disaster Recovery staff to confirm their construction experience. Devon Hanna, Grants Management Analyst with the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development explained that Execusuite has completed projects in New Hampshire and White River Junction and had community members advocate in support of their work.
Hanna said the Department of Environmental Conservation was involved to help determine what types of mitigation activities would be the most impactful.
A Cabot project for flood mitigation on the North Tributary was recommended for a Public Infrastructure Grant to cover $1,250,000 of the requested $1,455,506 project cost.
Hardwick was recommended for a Mitigation Project Grant of $1,200,000, less than of its requested $1,500,000, for a project titled Confluence Floodplain Restoration.
Hardwick was also recommended for a Planning Grant to cover the full requested amount of $250,000 to cover a project for Downtown Hardwick Flood Mitigation Scoping Study.
Plainfield’s request for $9,719,257 to fund a portion of the East Village Expansion project was not recommended for funding.
The board learned that a second round of funding is available only in the housing category..
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
