ATHOL — Town Manager Shaun Suhoski told a recent meeting of the Athol Selectboard that Gov. Charlie Baker had officially announced the awarding of an $800,000 Community Development Block Grant which will pay for continued infrastructure improvements to the Walnut Street neighborhood. This follows on the heels of previous CDBG grants which covered the cost of initial upgrades to the area.
“In 2020,” said Athol Planning and Development Director Eric Smith, “Church Street was able to be reconstructed from Main Street to where it intersects with Walnut. We re-did some of the curbing and sidewalks, and pedestrian access to the Athol Savings Bank and Church Street parking lot, and also between the Baptist Church and the Salvation Army property.
“We did new water, new sewer, new storm water improvements. Sidewalk improvements were done in that section of Church Street.
“I know it’s kind of a small block, but from Main to Walnut, that’s all improved now with the CDBG funding from last year.”
Athol applied for another round of CDBG funding in March of 2020. Smith said that, traditionally, the grants are announced in August, but because of the coronavirus pandemic this latest round wasn’t announced publicly until just a few weeks ago.
“This will take the improvements from Church Street along Walnut Street — in that area by the parking lot — over to Union,” said Smith. “And we’re also going to work on the Union Street-Walnut Street intersection as part of that project. And we’ll do some of the sidewalks and the ramps in that area near the intersection.
“So, that’s this year’s $800,000 project,” he said, adding the work will include, as it did in the previous grant, improvements to water, sewer and drainage.
Smith also pointed out that money from block grant that funded the 2020 Church Street project was also earmarked for future endeavors.
“When we got the last CDBG for the Church Street project,” he explained, “we also got money for the design of the rest of the Walnut Street area. So, now we essentially have design plans in place to do all of the work not only from Walnut to the end of Canal, but also from Canal to Main, and from Walnut to Main. A stretch of Union Street also has to be done from Walnut to Main.
Smith said COVID-19 is still having an effect on the grant process.
“Usually, the application for the next round of projects is usually due around now,” he said. “But they haven’t even announced that next round yet so we’re not sure when that’s going to take place. But we have those design plans in.
“So, I suspect the next application we work on would be to finish the Walnut Street project.”
Block grant funding, said Smith, isn’t the only source of cash the town is attempting to access in order to pay for improvements in the downtown area.
“When we were working on the CDBG application, we also were working to try to get our first round of funding under the Complete Streets program. Because back in 2019, we did our Complete Streets prioritization plan, and that was approved by MassDOT (state Department of Transportation). So, then we were eligible for implementation funds.
“And so the sidewalks around Fish Park — Union, Newton and Maple streets — those sidewalks will all be funded under the Complete Streets program. Then the plan is to do the south side of Fish Park with the next round of CDBG funding.”
When all the proposed work is completed, Smith said, the sidewalks along Walnut Street and three “little streets” that come into the area — including Church Street — will all be reconstructed.
“So, I think this area will see some really nice pedestrian improvements,” he said. “Walnut Street, I know, is really bad in some places around Fish Park. The roots from the trees have pushed up the curbing and the sidewalks in places.
“When my daughter was little, when we were walking that stretch, I had to watch out that she wasn’t going to trip. It’s in such bad shape.”
Smith said there was no one problem that made that area of town a target for improvements, rather, a list of issues that needed to be addressed.
“Certainly, the sidewalks,” he said, “but, and I’m not exactly sure of the age of the water and sewer systems, but some of them are from the turn of the last century. That’s how aged the systems are over there. They’re way over their lifetime capacity. They need to be replaced.”
Smith did point out that, in addition to the grant funding dedicated to the overall neighborhood improvement project, the town will be contributing some significant funding.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com