WILTON – Voters gave the green light Thursday for the town to apply for a Community Development Block Grant that could bring as many as 100 jobs to the area.
Fourteen residents attended the public hearing and special town meeting during which Gil Reed, of Nichols Development LLC, and Melissa Mitchell, of ITC Group, answered grant-related questions.
Nichols Development LLC, owners of the Nichols-Bass Business & Technology Center on Weld Road in Wilton, and its chief tenant, the ITC Group, plan to apply for the state-sponsored grant in order to fund improvements to the former G.H. Bass building, which now houses an ITC call center.
According to Town Manager Peter Nielsen, ITC Group officials hope to expand the Wilton call center by approximately 100 employees, but say that the facility needs to upgrade its heating and air-conditioning systems and to fix its roof before new hiring can take place.
ITC had planned to request $410,000 in grant money – $205,000 from the state, and $205,000 matched by Nichols Development. The amount requested was lowered to $107,000 from each source in an amendment to the application. “That lowers the stakes for everyone involved,” said Nielsen.
The town agreed to support the application in a unanimous vote at the special town meeting. Nielsen explained that the meeting was “a procedural step. The application is perceived as a good thing.”
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