GREENFIELD — Three more applicants presented requests for funding before the Community Preservation Committee this week, including a $100,000 ask from the Greenfield Housing Authority to build two additional housing units at the organization’s quadruplex on Deerfield Street.
The state’s Community Preservation Act (CPA) allows municipalities to adopt a property tax surcharge of up to 3%, the revenues from which are matched by state funds. Greenfield joined the CPA in 2020 with a local surcharge, allowing the city to receive state-matched funding for projects and initiatives related to housing, historic preservation, open space conservation and outdoor recreation.
This year, the committee received $666,456 in requests across 11 project applications. With $262,200 in CPA funds at its disposal, the Community Preservation Committee will decide which projects to fund, and forward its recommendations to City Council in March.
Earlier this month, the committee reviewed applications for a $120,000 facade restoration at the former Wilson’s Department Store building on Main Street, the Conservation Commission’s request for $50,000 for the Conservation Fund and a $8,730 request from the Recreation Department to install cornhole and other recreational fixtures at Beacon Field.
Deerfield Street housing
Greenfield Housing Authority Executive Director Jack Redman presented the most expensive CPA request heard by the committee Wednesday evening — a $100,000 proposal to build two affordable studio units in the four-family home at 317 Deerfield St. owned by Greenfield Housing Associates Inc, a nonprofit affiliate of the housing authority.
“For years, we’ve had an attic space that, at one point, before the Greenfield Housing Associates owned it, looks like they attempted to make units at some point,” Redman said, explaining that one half had a partial kitchen and shower. “Because there’s such a need for housing, we have started the process of converting this into two additional studio, potentially one-bedroom units.”
With an expected total cost of roughly $645,000, Redman said he plans to use funding from the Greenfield Housing Associates’ budget for part of the project, and will pursue Community Development Block Grant monies for another portion.
Noting that the two housing units are expected to be restricted to renters who make 100% of the area median income or less, Community Development Administrator Anna Oltman asked Redman if that limitation is typical for the Greenfield Housing Authority.
“That is a CPC regulation that we have to be at the 100% [AMI restriction]. We typically have folks at low, very low and moderate levels,” Redman responded. “This is higher, but it is that income level locally that the housing study targets us [with].”
Redman also explained that building the additional units would require the Greenfield Housing Authority to install a sprinkler system — an expense that Redman envisions will be one of the most costly.
Historical document preservation
Drawing a damaged 1902 city street listing from a cardboard box, Assistant City Clerk Quinn Jaquins detailed the City Clerk’s Office’s $30,000 request for an archival-quality V-shaped scanner designed specifically for handling and digitizing the city’s most fragile and historically significant documents.
The funding request makes up less than half of the City Clerk’s Office’s total $75,000 historical preservation project. Jaquins said the office will also have to fund rebinding for some of the most heavily damaged books and documents in the city’s archives so that they can be preserved in their original form.
“This is a book from 1902. It is a street listing, which is required by Massachusetts General Law to be kept forever,” Jaquins said, wearing white latex gloves to hold the artifact up for the committee to see. “Somebody, at some point in time, tried to tape it together. These are the documents that we’re required to keep that are, in fact, falling apart — they’re disintegrating.”
Committee member Donna DuSell, concerned that some of the city’s older, handwritten documents may not be machine-readable for disability accessibility purposes, asked Jaquins how many of the city’s historical documents are handwritten, to which Jaquins responded that the city has a large majority of handwritten documents, the oldest of which were written in the 1790s.
Jaquins also explained that the new scanner’s V shape will allow the clerk’s office to scan and digitize historic books without damaging them by placing them flat on a scanner.
“For the preservation of some of the gigantic books that we have, this type of scanner, which is the V scanner, will press down and scan the documents without destroying the spines,” Jaquins said. “The other scanners, which are flat scanners, will crush spines, which means they will have to be re-bound again.”
Explaining that some of the city’s historical documents were in urgent need of repair and rebinding, Jaquins explained that the city intends to publicize digitized records for easy community access.
“We want that database out to the public so that they can see it,” Jaquins said. “Keeping our history alive makes the future safer.”
Rental Assistance Fund
Redman, speaking on behalf of the Greenfield Housing Authority, presented a $30,000 request to be allocated toward the Security Deposit and Rental Assistance Fund, which is used to help low- and moderate-income renters make the upfront costs associated with renting.
Although last year, City Council approved $15,000 in CPA funds for the Rental Assistance Fund, Redman said that a number of residents seeking assistance had not yet applied to the state-funded Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program, making them ineligible for the Rental Assistance Fund. Still, Redman clarified that the Community Preservation Committee has reimbursed $2,500 in rental assistance funding this year.
Addressing concerns over allocating money to a fund, rather than a project, which were raised at the committee’s previous meeting earlier this month, Redman clarified that, if approved, the committee will hold onto the allocated funds and then reimburse the Greenfield Housing Authority after it spends them.
“We want to make sure that this money extends as far as it possibly can,” Redman said. “The reason we’re back is because we really are hopeful that Section 8 vouchers are able to be issued again and that is where a lot of folks need this money the most.”