Norwich receives $545,000 in state bond grants

Norwich — Two Norwich entities will receive a combined $545,000 in state bond money for building upgrades that have been in the planning stages awaiting funding.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, and state Reps. Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, and Emmett Riley, D-Norwich, announced jointly Friday that the state Bond Commission had approved a $460,000 grant to the Veterans’ Memorial Elementary School for capital improvements and $85,000 to the Norwich Fire Department for an equipment storage building.

The funding for Veterans’ Memorial will be used for building and safety upgrades along with technology upgrades, Superintendent Abby Dolliver said. The school became eligible for state-funded capital improvements after receiving a $425,000 federal school improvement program grant in June of 2015. Dolliver said the planned technology upgrade will be necessary to fully implement the school improvement plan.

“We’re so excited, because we’ve been waiting for a year and a half for this,” Dolliver said.

“This funding is essential to ensuring our local children have access to a safe environment where they can thrive inside and outside of the classroom,” Osten said in a news release announcing the grants.

The $85,000 grant to the Norwich Fire Department will fund construction of a storage building Fire Chief Kenneth Scandariato said he has been requesting for the past 11 years. Now, he likely will have more funding than needed for the project.

For years, city funding requests for the project were put on hold, but this past July, the City Council approved using $85,000 of the city’s federal Community Development Block Grant for the project.

Scandariato said he applied for the state bond grant at the same time as the CDBG fund request, because the application periods coincided. The city will use the state grant for the project, which is out to bid now, and only would use a portion of the CDBG grant if necessary, Scandariato said.

Community Development Director Gary Evans said he recommended project officials follow the federal CDBG requirements for environmental and construction aspects of the project in case the CDBG grant money is needed. Any portion not used for the project would be returned to the community development for re-allocation in next year’s grant process, Evans said.