Community Development Block Grants for 2015
Great Barrington —The Selectboard voted unanimously Monday (January 12) night for the town to apply for another year of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding in its aim to continue plans from the 2014 funding cycle for storm water infrastructure improvements on Front Street in the Village of Housatonic, and Housing Rehabilitation Program for low to moderate income homeowners.
Great Barrington is eligible for up to $913,067 in fiscal 2015 CDBG money, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and awarded on a competitive basis by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development to communities with populations under 50,000. The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) will administer the Housing Rehabilitation program. The town joined with the Town of Sheffield for last year’s application submission.
Town Planner Christopher Rembold said there were currently 30 applications for housing rehabilitation received for both Great Barrington and Sheffield. Not all could be funded, he noted, but if more funding is awarded this year, “we can try to meet more needs there.” Criteria for eligibility and applications for the program can be found on the town’s website. As an example of the income limits for eligibility, $63,900 is the limit for a family of four to qualify.
Some of last year’s funds went towards the design and engineering of a storm water infrastructure project on Front Street in Housatonic, which will cost around $600,000, Rembold said, and involve “draining water to the River, currently backed up to the mills in the sanitary sewer, and all going through the sewer plant and treated for no reason.” The problem, he added, is causing flooding in the mill properties.
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Special Designation for Municipal Employees
In an effort to ease restrictions that make it difficult for residents to volunteer or work part-time for the town without running into conflicts of interest, the Selectboard voted last night to give Special Municipal Employee status to a number of committees and several part-time positions. State conflict of interest laws can preclude town volunteers or part-time workers from doing business in town, or alternatively, prevent or make residents reluctant to serve the town. State conflict of interest law states that the status can be applied to positions provided “you are not paid; or you hold a part-time position which allows you to work at another job during normal working hours; or you were not paid by the city or town for more than 800 working hours (approximately 20 weeks full-time) during the preceding 365 days.”
When one position—a committee volunteer, for instance–is designated as “special,” all members of that committee must share the same status.
“There’s no downside to this [designation] because they’re still bound by conflict of interest law,” said Planning Board Chairman Jonathan Hankin, who brought the matter to the Selectboard for consideration, and who himself has served on the board for 18 years. As Selectboard member Dan Bailly pointed out, if, for example, “an architect who is also on the design advisory committee, and one of their projects comes before the group, they would still have to recuse themselves.”
“It allows someone on one board or committee to present to another one, and to get paid for it,” Hankin said. “People have to make a living in this town, and we’re asking people to give their time and energy on all these committees…all your doing is really saying that it allows you to try to make a living in this town and still volunteer. You’re not in any way relieving them of the responsibility of being ethical.”
According to the state ethics commission, School Committee members are also considered municipal employees, and can and should be granted special status. Selectboards from all three towns in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, however, would have to make the designation. Hankin suggested to Selectboard member and School Committee Chair Stephen Bannon that he put the matter on the next school committee meeting agenda.
Hankin hopes the designation will “encourage more volunteers to fill vacancies on town boards and committees and not prevent all volunteers from doing business in our town,” he wrote in an earlier email to the Selectboard. “We need to reward people who donate their time, energy and considerable expertise in serving the town, not punish them.”
The Selectboard will vote on other positions at their next meeting (January 26). Town positions that received Special Municipal Employee status on Monday (January 12) are as follows:
Agricultural Commission
Design Advisory Committee
Historic District Committee
Technology Committee
Animal Control Officer
Conservation Committee
Historic Commission
Tree Committee
Assistant Building Inspector
Cultural Council
Parks Commission
Zoning Board of Appeals
