Ashland to receive CDBG funds for water and sewer upgrades
ASHLAND - The town of Ashland is getting a water and sewer upgrade thanks to a more than $600,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
Joella Theriault, Community Development Specialist with Northern Maine Development Commission, was asked to write the grant application for the CDBG Public Infrastructure Program after previously securing CDBG funds for Ecoshel, Inc. and a community center at the former Central Street School.
The $640,000 award will be used to fund two major projects said Theriault. The first, with a price tag of $250,000, is the installation of an aeration system to reduce the levels of copper and lead in the drinking water supply. The second project is the replacement of 3,060 linear feet of water main on the Garfield Road, at a cost of $390,000.
Theriault said the project received the CDBG funds for some good reasons.
"The Water and Sewer District had already raised sewer rates by 50 percent in July 2012 and raised water rates by 7.5 percent effective January 2014," she said. "Users could not afford another rate increase to fund this project. In order to fund this project with users; rates would have to be increased another 40 percent."
Theriault added, legislation approved last session for a public (Maine Department of Transportation)/private (EJ Carrier) partnership to update a portion of the Garfield Road to allow larger sized trucks to travel local roads is due for completion this construction season so it was important for the District to replace the water line to coincide with the road reconstruction project.
Matching funds for this project are $600,000 from MDOT/Carrier for road reconstruction and $160,000 from Ashland Water and Sewer District.
"If anyone is interested in applying for CDBG funds, they should contact me so that I might provide technical assistance in preparing them to submit an application, such as meeting a national objective of the program, explanation of the Phase I and Phase II (Project Development) applications, timeline for applying, grant writing services and citizen participation," said Theriault.
For more information, contact Theriault at 543-1802 or by email at [email protected].
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