HOULTON – For a small town that has big plans to maintain and enhance its infrastructure and encourage economic development, securing grant money is crucial.

But updated information about a town and its makeup also is important for winning grants. Town officials say that having a modernized comprehensive plan in place will help acquire state and federal funding for a host of different projects.

Houlton’s comprehensive plan, which was completed in 2002, allows for growth within the community. It contains information about the town’s demographics, housing, transportation and economy.

While the town gave the nod to the report when it was completed four years ago, the plan was never approved by the State Planning Office. Both Town Manager Douglas Hazlett and Don Keiser, the town’s grant writer and planning administrator, said that staffing changes in the town and at the State Planning Office were to blame.

Both Hazlett and Keiser told councilors that the town needed to finish the project in order to compete for future grant money.

During 2005, Keiser wrote applicants to garner grants to provide assistance with developing Tax Increment Financing districts and to implement Houlton’s downtown revitalization plan, in concert with grants to help pay for long-term community initiatives. The town was awarded more than $202,000 in grant money last year.

The manager said in July that town officials had been working with the state to determine the easiest way to get the revised comprehensive plan approved. While it was not necessary for the town to completely redo the plan, they needed to update the data that was in it.

Equipped with that information, town councilors opted to have officials begin work on the comprehensive plan immediately. Councilors voted unanimously to pay $16,430 to the Northern Maine Development Commission to update and revise the plan. The project was paid for with leftover grant money and economic development money.

Hazlett said recently that he is optimistic that all of the updates will be finished by the end of January.

“This is something that we definitely need to get approved by the state, and I think that the revision process is going very well,” Hazlett said. “Hopefully it will be ready by next month.”

After it is approved, town officials plan to develop a process to mandate its periodic review.