Patten to seek block grant for town face lift

PATTEN — Officials in Patten are hoping the town will get approval and receive $1.6 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds over the next two years to give their town a face lift.

Town Manager Paul Beattie and David Potter, a consultant for the Northern Maine Regional Planning Commission, explained the proposed grant to about 40 town residents who attended a public hearing Tuesday night.

The town completed the first phase of the application process last fall. At that time a local committee outlined several areas it felt should be addressed as part of the grant process.

Those areas included an overall improvement of the appearance of the town’s business district, improvements to local recreation facilities, road reconstruction and renovations to substandard houses.

Beattie said the state had received $9 million from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for the grant program. Twenty-six towns in the state have applied for some of that money. Grants are limited to a maximum of $800,000 in any year, he said.

Patten’s grant proposal has been broken down into four areas.

The Main Street portion of the proposed project would include relocation of utility poles from Main Street to sites behind businesses, sidewalk reconstruction with interlocking brick, installation of new, antique-style street lights and reconstruction of three parking lots. The total cost would be $254,686.

The neighborhood improvement portion of the grant proposal would include installation of storm drains, street reconstruction and rehabilitation of 18 homes for a total cost of $1,118,326.

The recreation portion of the proposal would include rehabilitation of the town gymnasium and improvements to the town’s park and ball field at a cost of $31,500.

An additional $200,265 would be included to cover engineering costs and program administration of the entire project.

Potter explained that the total package was twice what the town could expect in one year to cover all of the projects. He said, however, that the town would have the option to reapply for another grant during the second year in order to address all of the needs outline in the proposal.

He said town officials would decide which projects would be done first.

“It’s a local program,” he said. “Once the money is in your town, you can do with it as you want provided it is used for the projects outlined on the original application.”

Beattie said the town was under no obligation to accept the grant if the town was approved for funding. He added that no local dollars had been spent so far on any portion of the application process and none could be spent without voter approval.

One concern expressed by several people was that the improvements made to the downtown and homes would increase the state’s total valuation of the town which would increase local property taxes.

Royce Smallwood, the town’s tax assessor, said that improvements to sidewalks and the moving of utility lines were not considered in the state’s valuation.

Beattie said any renovations to homes would have an almost negligible impact on the local valuation because the improvements would be mostly in the area of exterior improvements to protect the buildings against weather.

He said local criteria based on federal guidelines would have to be established to determine which houses would be renovated.