ATHOL – The Selectboard has voted to back an application for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for water and sewer line repairs.

Planning and Development Director Eric Smith went before the Selectboard at its meeting on March 18 to discuss the $850,000 CDBG application to fund the reconstruction of 806 feet of water and sewer lines along South Street, between Freedom and Tunnel streets.

His presentation was part of a public hearing required to move ahead with the application. Smith told the board, “We’re looking to do all of the water, sewer and drainage, as well as resurface the road and improve the sidewalks.”

Smith explained that preliminary design work has already been completed using $25,000 provided by the Selectboard and another $123,000, to be covered through the grant, would be used to complete the final design. Another $93,000, said Smith, would be used for consulting work and administration of the grant. He expects the grant to cover all the work.

“If you do the math,” he told the board, subtracting the cost of design and administration “that leaves $633,212.10 towards construction,” he said. “It’s important to note that the water, sewer and drainage are eligible for CDBG (funding) because they are ‘fair to poor’ and are considered ‘blight.’”

Because South Street itself is in fairly good shape – “it didn’t qualify as ‘poor.’ We were hoping to use Chapter 90 money for the roadway work, and we were also hoping to use Complete Streets money for the sidewalk work in that area,” Smith added.

Another $60,000 for a required town match might come from the Capital Program budget or the water/sewer funding in FY27.

“If we can’t get that match,” he added, “we can always scale the project back a little.”

Smith explained that the CDBG program is overseen by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and as of right now, that funding still remains.

“The project has to serve low- and moderate-income beneficiaries to eliminate blight,” he said. “The project we’re talking about tonight is actually eliminating blight under the downtown blight study we had done a few years ago.”

Following some brief questions from some of the residents in attendance, board member Rebecca Bialecki made a motion that the board approve the grant application as presented by Smith. The motion passed on a unanimous vote.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.