Windham Town Council passes CDBG grant proposals

By Lorraine Glowczak

The Windham Town Council met on Tuesday, January 28 at the Windham Town Council Chamber Rooms at 6:30 p.m. At that meeting, the Council authorized the use of the Community Development Block Grant Programs that will be used for two projects: Anglers Road Streetscape Project and Port Resources Windham Group Home Renovations.

Briefly, according to the Housing Urban Development website, “The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program provides annual grants on a formula basis to states, cities, and counties to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment, and by expanding economic opportunities, principally for low- and moderate-income persons.”

Tom Bartell, Director of the Windham Economic Development Corporation explained that the CDBD proposals are limited to two applications and must be supported and endorsed by the town as the standards are set by the grant.

The grant proposals were presented at the Council workshop held on Tuesday, January 21. The presentations for both projects were made by Stu Simon of Port Resource and Bartell of WEDC.

At that meeting Bartell proposed the Anglers Road Streetscape Project which includes the following: to install a bus shelter, benches, solar powered sidewalk/pedestrian scale lighting on the 800-foot public portion of Anglers Road. It will serve as a pilot project for Windham’s sustainability efforts by designing, installing and monitoring the performance of solar powered pedestrian scale lighting.

As for Port Resources, the company manages two group homes in Windham, and it includes eight adults with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges.  Each home has a variety of needs relating to energy efficiency, aging home equipment and infrastructure issues. Through the CDBG Construction Grant, Simon proposed to use the grant for the following projects at the following locations:

109 Forbes Lane Group Home:

Replace living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and common area flooring

Interior painting

Replacing kitchen cabinets

Install a heat pump

15 Billabong Way Group Home

Exterior and Interior Painting

Rot Repair

Basement air exchanger

Replace toilets, range hood, kitchen countertop, tub shower control, heat pump

The Council ended its meeting to go into executive session. To learn more about other issues discussed at this Council meeting or previous meetings and workshops, go to the town website at www.windhammaine.us/ where one can find the minutes and recorded video version of the meetings. All meetings are televised live on the local cable channel as well as on Facebook live.