The Office of Community Development has announced that it will award the City of Waterville a $500,000 Downtown Revitalization Grant through the Community Development Block Grant program. “ We had the most competitive round of Downtown Revitalization application in several years. I look forward to working with the City of Waterville and the Waterville Main Street Program on executing the activities in their successful grant application,” says Terry Ann Stevens, Development Program Manager of the Office of Community Development.
According to Shannon Haines, Executive Director of Waterville Main Street, “The grant will fund three significant categories of activity designed to spur further development and revitalization efforts in Downtown Waterville.” Haines worked with the City to write and submit the successful grant application. The three major funding categories include waterfront improvements, the creation of a Downtown Improvement Grant fund, and streetscape improvements.
The primary goal of the planned waterfront improvements is to develop a visible and accessible connection between the Head of Falls riverfront property and the rest of the Downtown district via Temple Street. Specifically, funds will be used to: a) Raise and provide handicapped access to the Two Cent Bridge, a structure that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; b) Develop a gateway plaza that will serve as a Head of Trails site for the Kennebec Messalonskee Trails system; c) Develop walkways to connect the Gateway Plaza to Temple Street and accessible parking; and d) Make landscaping and other aesthetic improvement, including improved lighting, benches, and trash cans, to this City owned parcel of land. The planned improvements are in keeping with the 2001 Waterville Riverfront Master Plan.
The Downtown Improvement Grant fund will be broken into three categories of funding that will be made available to downtown business and property owners, who will be required to provide a 1:1 match in order to receive grant funding. The categories include Façade Improvement Grants, Microenterprise Grants and Rental Housing Grants. “Now that the CDBG funding has been secured, Waterville Main Street will work with the City to develop the specific program details and application materials over the next month or so,” said Haines. “We are very excited to be able to offer such a wide range of resources to business and property owners to help them make improvements and become more profitable.”
The proposed streetscape improvements to be funded through the grant include bicycle racks, banners, trash receptacles, and signage. The streetscape improvements portion of the Downtown Revitalization grant will be matched by the City of Waterville through moneys from the Downtown TIF fund.
Downtown Waterville has benefited from CDBG grants in the past as well, including a $100,000 Community Enterprise Grant for façade improvements in 2004 and a $150,000 Community Enterprise Grant for sidewalk repair in 2006.
