NORWAY – The town will be backing one more grant application to benefit the C.B. Cummings & Sons mill redevelopment project.
Members of the Norway Board of Selectmen on Thursday voted 5-0 to hold a public hearing to apply for a $400,000 Downtown Revitalization grant.
“It’s scary, but we’ve made so many commitments so far, I think this may be the last step we have to take,” Selectman Bob Walker said.
On Jan. 14, the town applied for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant. Both grants would help the town and the Western Maine Development, which owns the property, prepare the mill for revitalization.
Brett Doney of the development corporation said the more recent grant application comes with a job creation requirement. The $400,000 reward would necessitate 14 jobs be created, eight of which would have to benefit low- to moderate-income people, he said. If the jobs are not created the granting agency may require the money be repaid.
As the grant applicant, the town of Norway would normally be responsible for creating the jobs, Doney said, but the revitalization corporation would be willing to sign an agreement and assume that responsibility.
Doney also on Thursday asked the board to support a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant application for the Western Maine Office Technology Park project planned for a 161-acre parcel off Roberts Road. The public hearing approved by the selectmen will cover both grant applications.
Doney said the technology park grant also would require the creation of 14 jobs.
“The time frame bothers me a little,” Town Manager David Holt said, referring to a related deadline. “Having that developed enough so that 14 jobs are created in two years, that comes pretty quickly.”
Doney said the park is expected to be developed over several years and should eventually provide at least 500 jobs.
Holt conceded that money needs to be found if the project is going to move forward.
Board Chairman Leslie Flanders said he was optimistic about the ability to create jobs on the mill site. “I think that could come together quicker than the tech site,” he said.
“I move that we at least apply,” Bob Walker responded.
Walker’s motion was not seconded because the board first needs to hold a public hearing on the grant applications, as required by law.
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