MONTPELIER — Waltham, Ferrisburgh, Bridport and Cornwall are among the Vermont towns that will benefit from recent Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) grants totaling $5,215,623. The monies will be used to to develop and rehabilitate 216 affordable homes, to protect 377 acres of agricultural land on three farms, to conserve 340 acres of forest land in the towns of Pownal, Shrewsbury and Mendon, and to provide permanent public access to a swimming hole in Johnson.
The VHCB board made the funding commitments at a meeting in Burlington on Friday, June 12. Housing developments and rehabilitation projects were funded in the towns of Bennington, Springfield, Fair Haven, Waltham and South Burlington. Farmland conservation projects were funded in the towns of Ferrisburgh, Morgan, Cornwall and Bridport.
In Waltham, the Addison County Community Trust will use $350,000 in VHCB funds and $440,000 in federal HOME funds awarded by VHCB to purchase the Gevry Mobile Home Park, which has been vacant for more than five years. The deteriorating mobile homes will be removed from the site, contamination will be remediated and the water and waste systems and roads will be upgraded. The park will be converted to a 14-unit rental development with the installation of seven energy efficient modular duplex homes.
In addition, VHCB funding commitments of $242,500 were matched with $240,000 in federal funds from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to conserve 377 acres of farmland in Ferrisburgh, Bridport and Cornwall, and Morgan. Conservation will facilitate transfer of each farm to new owners, either to the next generation or to long-time lessors of the farmland.