Grants, If We Don't Use Them Other Towns Will

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of knowing how to leverage state and federal funding to get what we need without using local tax dollars in these difficult economic times. Admittedly, these funds ultimately come from tax dollars provided by residents, state or nationwide, but if we don't use them other towns will.

In the past, I served as Administrative Assistant to the Town Manager and then Executive Assistant to the Selectman. My duties back then included writing grants for the Town of Monroe.  Some of those grants included a nearly million dollar project to develop Great Hollow Lake. In addition, not long after the lake and beach was developed, a developer got approval from Planning & Zoning to construct 52 homes on Great Hollow Drive. I pursued a grant to protect the lake from the development of 24 homes which would have bordered the lake, thereby keeping the lake in the pristine condition it is today.

We had to go to eminent domain back then, the court gave the developer fair market value for this acreage. This, I believe was a $600,000+ project with state and town funding.  Some of the lesser grants were the paving and drainage of the Webb Mountain Road, which until then was inaccessible for the greater part of the year. The first senior citizen director (part-time) was funded through grant monies.  The first transportation for seniors was gotten with grant funds.

I created the Dial-A-Dump Program, still in place today, with federal funds. These are just a few grants of significance, there were lesser grants. I then became Director of Human Resources and an EDC Coordinator/grants writer was hired to take over writing grants. This grant writer worked on the New Senior Citizen Center Grant and also developed a STEAP grant for the renovation of the pool at Wolfe Park.

I was initially employed in the Town of Bethel as an HR Assistant. Not long after, I began developing and working on grants for the Town and the title Grants Administrator was added to my duties. Since that time I have worked on or gotten many grants for this community.

I have roughly added up about 4 million dollars worth of grant monies this Town has received since I have been there. They range from STEAP grants for paving, to sidewalk construction, to constructing a water tower for their industrial park, to a demolition project to tear down the old Town Hall, to a pipe reconstruction project to provide safe drinking water to homes, to replacing boilers at one of the schools, to obtaining open space land funds.

The one I am most proud of is a revolving loan project I was involved in getting for senior citizens. This was a $300,000 project that was so successful the Town has reapplied for another one under the Small Cities Grant project. Again, there are many other smaller grants I was fortunate to obtain for the Town.

The point of my reciting all of the above is to show how important it is to get grants for a town — the importance of leveraging and the vision that is necessary to go after these funds. This will be just one of my priorities when I am elected First Selectman.