Jim Mazik of PVPC discusses the CDBG application with the Select Board. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
SOUTHWICK – At Tuesday night’s meeting at the Southwick Town Hall, the Select Board made a motion to accept the application from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) for a proposed Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for Fiscal Year 2019.
Federally-funded and designed to assist small cities and towns in meeting their community development needs, the CDBG program is through the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.
Working with PVPC Deputy Director Jim Mazik, the Select Board has chosen two needs in town they want addressed.
“We wanted to really focus on infrastructure improvements around the lakes and housing rehabilitation,” said Mazik.
Select Board Vice-Chairman Russ Fox commended the efforts made by Mazik with the application.
“Jim (Mazik) has been very successful and has helped the town immensely,” said Fox.
The issues that need to be addressed through this grant request are the paving, improvement of drainage, and updating water and sewer infrastructure on Bungalow Street, and a town-wide housing rehabilitation for 15 housing units.
The housing rehabilitation consists of addressing building code violations, health and sanitation violations, as well as serious infrastructure repairs like roofs, leaks, plumbing, and septic.
Noting that the most a community can receive in a two-year period is $1.35 million, if the town is approved for the $550,000 FY 19 grant the town will then apply for $800,000 on the FY 20 application.
