Amherst, Becket, Chesterfield, Easthampton, Greenfield, Huntington, Montague, North Adams, Palmer, Shelburne, Southwick, Ware, Warren and West Springfield are among local communities that received grants.
Gov. Deval Patrick in Springfield last month at an event to discuss rebuilding after the June 1 tornadoes.BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick awarded $28 million in grants, including $12.7 million in 24 communities in Western Massachusetts for improving public housing, providing child care, food and other social services for the poor and repairing some tornado damage in West Springfield.
During an event in Chelsea, Patrick unveiled federally financed Community Development Block Grants for communities with populations of 50,000 or less. The program is the state's largest pot of money for neighborhood revitalization.
In a phone interview, Patrick said he was excited about the grants and thrilled that communities are putting the money to good uses, including housing.
"This is a really important program," the governor said. "We're going to do everything we can to protect it, working with our congressional delegation."
With so much debate in Washington about spending cuts, some local officials are concerned the program could be reduced for next year.
The state receives the federal money in a lump sum and awards grants to eligible cities and towns that apply for the competition.
Amherst, Becket, Chesterfield, Easthampton, Greenfield, Huntington, Montague, North Adams, Palmer, Shelburne, Southwick, Ware, Warren and West Springfield are among local communities that received grants. In a few instances, communities act as administrators for grants shared with nearby communities.
Each of the grants totals $1 million or fairly close to that number.
In May, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development announced similar grants for cities such as Holyoke and Springfield.
The Patrick administration received 62 applications for grants and approved 29. A total of 41 communities in the state will receive money from the grants since some of the grants are for multiple communities.
Patrick said the grant program is particularly helpful because communities get a major say in how to tailor the money.
"It offers so much flexibility to local communities to meet their own self-identified needs," Patrick said.
Leaders in cities and towns were as excited as Patrick.
With talk from Washington that block grant money could be reduced, Amherst Town Planner Nathaniel Malloy said the $1 million grant “is good news all around.”
The town plans to use the money to acquire land for affordable housing on West Street and for sidewalk and infrastructure improvements on Main Street as well as for social service programs, including funding of the emergency homeless shelter and assisting the Center for New Americans, an education center for immigrants and refugees in Western Massachusetts.
Montague, meanwhile, received $900,000 for three units of housing rehabilitation and Unity Park improvements.
Chesterfield received $1,047,404 to use for rehabilitation of 13 housing units and helping first-time home buyers as well as a Goshen senior housing planning study. Chesterfield will share the grant with five nearby communities.
Southwick's $900,000 grant will allow the town to proceed with a long awaited expansion of its Senior Center located at Town Hall on College Highway.
Town Administrator Karl J. Stinehart praised the award, saying the town’s application last year for funding for the Senior Center project was not approved.
The town requested $593,000 for the Senior Center project and $215,000 for housing rehabilitation.
This award, Stinehart said, will allow the town, with its architect Reinhardt Associates, to proceed with competitive bidding later this year for the center expansion and hopefully a ground breaking for construction next spring.
The project will add needed space to the center along with creation of a new entrance and improved access for the elderly, he said.
Some of the grant will be used for housing rehabilitation at eight homes in a target area that surrounds Congamond Lakes.
Alice DaveyIn Palmer, Community Development Director Alice L. Davey was especially pleased with receiving $900,000 grant.
While Palmer traditionally has received the funding, it did not receive any block grants in 2009 or last year, endangering the future of the community development department.
Davey was forced to lay off two employees last summer, and initially thought she would have to close the entire department down, but was able to keep it going through leftover funds.
Davey requested $1 million in funding, but is pleased she will receive $900,000. She included the following projects in the grant application: $247,000 for income-eligible housing rehabilitation projects; the design of Endelson Playground in the village of Bondsville for $33,000; infrastructure improvements including sidewalks, water mains and storm drains at Crest and Hill streets in Bondsville for $485,000; and the domestic violence task force for $45,000. Approximately $188,000 was included for administrative costs.
Davey said she is not sure yet where the $100,000 cut was made.
"These are all worthy projects. It will be nice to make some improvements in Bondsville," Davey said.
The towns of Brookfield, Ware, Warren and Hardwick are sharing a $754,217 grant that will fund housing rehabilitation and adult literacy.
Staff reporters Lori Stabile, Diane Lederman and Ted LaBorde contributed to this report.