GRANVILLE — A small number of Granville citizens voiced their opinions in a vote last week to allow the town to apply for a bond of up to $200,000 that would pay for repairs on town buildings.
According to town clerk Kathy Werner, the 27 voters who turned out were approximately 13 percent of the town’s voters. But the ones who were at the June 3 meeting voted unanimously by Australian ballot to float the bond, which will cover much of the cost of renovations and energy retrofits on the town hall and Lower Village schoolhouse. Town officials expect the total price tag for the project will be about $236,000.
Part of the project will be financed with a Department of Energy block grant of almost $49,000, which will fund energy retrofits on the town hall and the schoolhouse. The remainder of the funds will pay for the conversion of the schoolhouse to a space for the town offices and renovations to the town hall, including steeple repairs.
To further offset the cost of the bond, the town has applied for a USDA Rural Development grant that would give the town about $91,000 in unmatched funds toward the repair project. Selectboard chair Vivian Branschofsky said the grant application has already been sent to Washington, D.C., for review, but the town cannot begin hiring contractors on the project until it has gotten a definite response on the grant.
In the meantime, selectboard members last Monday voted to approve Jay White, of R.C. Williams Associates in Pittsfield, as the project’s architect. Branschofsky said the USDA grant process would likely not hinder the project’s timeline — work is expected to be done by year’s end — as the town expects to hear back about the grant before the preliminary planning stages are over.
Reporter Andrea Suozzo is at [email protected].