Shumlin delivers CDBG grant for failing retaining wall over Harmony Lot
Photo Gallery | PHOTOS: Gov. Peter Shumlin visits Windham County
BRATTLEBORO — The town's very busy, and expensive, construction season got a little more affordable Tuesday.
Gov. Peter Shumlin came to town to announce that Brattleboro would receive a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant to help pay for the reconstruction of the Green Street retaining wall that stands over the Harmony Parking Lot.
The Department of Public Works determined last year that the wall was leaning over the parking lot and would have to be replaced at a cost of about $500,000.
The town found out last month that it would not be receiving a $175,000 Vermont Agency of Transportation Structures Grant for the wall, and for a while it was looking like the entire project would have to be paid for with local money.
Standing before the wall in the Harmony Lot Tuesday, Shumlin said $300,000 out of an approximately $2.85 million statewide grant would be put toward the Green Street wall project.
"What is happening in Brattleboro; the renaissance with the Brooks House, and with all of the businesses that are thriving now, with CCV being downtown and with all that we're doing together making this community work, it can't happen if we don't invest in infrastructure," Shumlin said. "And that wall behind us is an example of infrastructure that is absolutely critical to downtown. With that wall falling down into the parking lot we obviously can't do all of the things that we want to do, or be all of the things we want to be."
The Community Development Block Grant program is funded with money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and distributed to municipalities throughout the state through the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development.
Along with Brattleboro's grant, projects in Bennington, Lyndon, Milton,Proctor, Randolph, Tunbridge and Bristol also received support through the federal CDBG program.
In a joint statement, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said: "Year after year, CDBG remains the principal source of much-needed funding for our communities to apply flexible solutions to promote economic, physical and social development in Vermont's small cities and towns. The diversity of these new grants shows what a significant impact CDBG investments can help make in a community — from housing counseling to environmental clean-up, to services to help children and first-time parents. The CDBG program is a smart investment, and we are urging others in Congress to increase funding for this program so that our community partners throughout the state can continue to innovate, create jobs and invest in what works."
The announcement Tuesday that Brattleboro would be receiving the federal money for the Green Street wall project had a ripple effect across the town's packed public infrastructure rehabilitation list.
Town Meeting Representatives this year approved $485,000 for a list of projects including the Green Street wall, the Elliot Street Bridge, health and safety improvements at the Municipal Center, and a retaining wall on Bonnyvale Road.
If the town had not received the CDBG money the Green Street wall project, which probably was at the top of the list, would have likely accounted for most of the Town Meeting-approved funding.
Following Shumlin's announcement Tuesday, Town Manager Peter Elwell said the town can now begin to plan for some of the other projects.
"Without this money the Town Meeting money would not have been sufficient because of the multiple uses that we're putting the money towards," Elwell said. "Now that we've received this we can use a relatively small amount of the Town Meeting authorization to finish this job. We're very grateful to the state for its funding and now we have the ability to refocus some of those town meeting authorized funds for other projects."
Elwell said the final estimates for the Green Street wall are not in yet, but he said he hoped to continue with the Municipal Center upgrades, which will total about $450,000, and maybe begin engineering studies for the Elliot Street Bridge.
About $82,000 is still remaining from the Town Meeting authorization.
"This is more than help from the state," said Elwell. "We'd have gone into a huge scramble to figure out how we could approach this. It really is essential funding to make this project possible."
The Public Works Department has already started work on the wall and Public Works Director Steve Barrett said he expected to have the project completed this summer.
"We have to get this project completed before fall, and without the funding that would have been much harder to do," Barrett said. "This was the most critical project because of the infrastructure, and the danger of it failing, and the public safety aspect. This is number one. It had to happen. We're very excited to be able to go."
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