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- Category: Past Issues
Town Hall
will take in
development
offices
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- Caught short by recent news from the state that another Small Cities grant will not be available to cover the rent and some salaries, the town's Economic and Redevelopment offices will be moving into the Town Hall by the end of the month.
Community Development Director Delpha M. Very said previously a town could have more than one Community Development Block Grant (Small Cities) in process. The town's current Small Cities grant, which includes the Facade Program, still has money in it. Until that grant is spent down, the town cannot have another grant. Because the Facade Program is very tedious, with design, estimates and more, it takes a long time to spend down that portion of the grant.
Very said the town is sending a letter of intent to the state, noting that it intends to spend down the current grant and plans to apply for another grant.
In the meantime, "this is a difficult time for town leadership," Very said. For now, gone is the grant money that covered the rent and utilities at the former Belding mill and gone is the salary of Mary Perry, redevelopment administrator.
But Town Administrator Douglas M. Cutler said the salary of Perry, plus part of the salary of Jackie Lefevre, will be absorbed into the town's general government budget. And he said the Town Hall will absorb the redevelopment, economic and community development offices. The Town Hall building, already tightly packed, will find a way to house those offices.
"We will have to make it work," Cutler said.
Very said "It's important to keep economic and community development intact. We need to keep people in jobs and continue moving forward and planning for the future."