SOUTHWICK – The Board of Selectmen last week gave approval to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) to apply for a grant for the town.
James Mazik of the PVPC met with the board to discuss a recent denial of a grant application because the town did not score high enough to qualify.
“The cutoff was 76 points and you were eight points below that,” said Mazik.
Mazik said he believed another appliation showing improvements to areas such as veteran’s streets would earn approval. He said that category scored an average of 53 points, due in part to lack of resident participation in advisory committee meetings and a lack of residential input.
“Points were knocked off because there was no sign-in sheet,” Mazik offered as an example of why there was such a low score.
Mazik suggested taking the grant-required ad-hoc committee, which will be headed by Selectman Joseph Deedy, literally to the streets to speak to veterans as a way to get more input and increase scores.
One area of excellence was the mobile food pantry, which also serves the town of Granville in addition to Southwick.
“The mobile food pantry scored 67 points, which is really high,” he said.
Mazik added that social service programs are not included as a category but count toward the average score.
Housing and Rehab scored well, but Mazik said they could easily improve the score.
“There wasn’t additional outreach to target areas, and we can do that,” he said, using letters as an example.
Mazik told the board he believed the town could raise their scores into the high 60s, plus receive an additional 10 points for its regional services. He added that the PPC had a good success rate with grants.
“We wrote eight applications and were successful with six,” he said.
“That’s a good sign,” said Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart.
The board agreed to allow the PVPC to work with the ad-hoc committee and prepare a new grant application.
“The sooner the better,” Mazik said of the committee formation. “I will contact Granville and we can do something on a Saturday in October on the street.”
Deedy said he would call upon the ad-hoc committee members from the last application.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said.
