ATHOL – Gov. Maura Healey’s office announced recently that the Town of Athol has been awarded a Community Development Block Grant [CDBG] of $950,000 for an infrastructure improvement project along sections of South and Freedoms streets.

The grant application, which was submitted in March, was authored by Andrew Loew, director of community development and resiliency planning for the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission and Athol Planning and Development Director Eric Smith, with assistance from Town Manager Shaun Suhoski, Assistant Planning Director Heidi Murphy, and Public Works Director Dick Kilhart.

“About 650 feet would be reconstructed on Freedom Street,” said Smith. “There are actually no sidewalks on Freedom, so they’ll be putting a sidewalk on one side, updating all the utilities (water, sewer, drainage) – all the things that we’ve been doing in other areas.”

Work on South Street, according to Smith, would cover about 1,100 feet between Freedom and Pine streets.

“The nice thing about being able to do this project,” said Smith, “is that we’re hopeful still about an MVP (Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness) grant award for the redesigned, reconstructed, and greened-up Lord Pond Plaza. Eventually, we’re going to try hopefully get some funding to do the rest of the South Street area but, for right now, this is what were able to get the money for.”

Other infrastructure improvements that have been done with CDBG funds in recent years include Walnut, Union, and Canal streets, with a new project getting underway soon on Lumber and Canal streets south of Main. Marble Street, east of Exchange Street, was also improved several years ago.

“We do have a CDBG Advisory Committee and we’re going to meet again sometime this fall, sometime after Labor Day,” said Smith. “We’ll be brainstorming some potential grant projects for the next cycle. (Applications) are usually due in March and we have to start thinking about anything like design work by mid to late fall. Then we need to go before the Selectboard and have community meetings, then a public hearing in February. So, it’s a reality that we do need to start thinking about it sooner rather than later.

“We might want to look at some streets that aren’t completed still. We did some paving work on Exchange between Main and South not too long ago. I know we didn’t address the sidewalks along Exchange Street, and there still is Exchange Street between Main and the (Exchange Street) bridge that we haven’t touched yet. But those are some projects that we’ll bring to the committee, and we’ll probably look at some other areas.”

Asked about the status of the greening of Lord Pond Plaza, Smith said the town received word on Friday that they were the recipient of a $3 million MVP Action Grant, which the town applied for in April. Smith said the project, which includes the daylighting of Mill Brook and the creation of green space in the parking area now blanketed in asphalt, is estimated to cost in the vicinity of $4 million.

“It’s the only MVP daylighting project that they’ve had before them so far,” Smith said. “I think they want to see us as the ‘poster child’ project.”

As for the other million dollars, Smith said, “We’ll brainstorm that after we hear [from the state].”

Smith added that MVP grants would go entirely to construction costs. Design and engineering were completed by the Worcester engineering firm BSC Group through an MVP Action Grant. The public saw the final design plans last June, after three public meetings and two site walks held after the greening of Lord Pond was first proposed.

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