Norwich neighborhood projects dominate grant applications

Requests totaling $1.5 million received

Norwich — Requests by city agencies to fund police officers and a building code enforcement officer, rebuild playgrounds and basketball courts and fund upgrades to public housing dominated the 2019 grant applications submitted by Friday’s deadline for the federal Community Development Block Grant.

The Community Development Office received requests totaling $1.5 million — as usual, nearly twice the city’s anticipated 2019 funding total of $836,068. The Community Development Advisory Committee will review the proposals, hold hearings with the applicants and make recommendations to the City Council this spring. The council, too, will hold a public hearing before voting on final grant allocations.

The city Police Department requested $316,461 to help continue its community policing program in downtown and Greeneville with foot, bicycle and vehicle patrols and crime prevention efforts. The application shows city general fund costs totaling $431,609 for the community policing program.

Police Chief Patrick Daley said Friday the request is for continued funding for three officers in the community policing program in anticipation of possible funding cuts in the city budget this spring. He said the community policing program, restored in 2010, has a proven track record of success, with improved relations between officers and residents and business owners in the urban neighborhoods.

“We’re always trying to find different funding sources,” Daley said. “And it works.”

Daley said crime has dropped significantly in the city and he attributed that to the community policing. The department received an award of excellence for community policing in 2016 by the New England Police Chiefs Association. Officers assist with neighborhood events, do problem-solving with residents and businesses and foster regular non-emergency communication.

“While this project will benefit the entire community of Norwich,” the application stated, “the specific neighborhoods targeted will be the Greeneville and Downtown sections.”

The city Planning and Neighborhood Services Department requested funding for a code enforcement officer who also would focus primarily on Greeneville and secondarily on Taftville. The application stated the officer would enforce the city’s blight ordinance, investigate complaints, enforce the snow removal ordinance and coordinate with the Public Works Department “to secure and clean abandoned buildings.”

The request is for a full-time code enforcement officer, but city Planning Director Deanna Rhodes wrote in the application that if funding is reduced in the grant award, the department would consider hiring a part-time officer.

Neighborhood attention

Greeneville and Taftville also would get more attention from the city Recreation and Public Works departments through the CDBG program. The Public Works Department requested $135,057 to rebuild the former Greeneville School playground at the end of Golden Street. The project would remove the existing outdated playground equipment, and buy new equipment geared for children ages 4 through 12 and a fitness station for all ages. Three benches and a platform for a picnic table would be added, along with three parking spaces, one of them a handicapped space, and seeding and loam.

The Public Works Department also requested $41,800 to build a gazebo at a popular neighborhood park built with CDBG funds several years ago. The gazebo project was delayed, because Taftville fell off the list of U.S. Census tracts eligible for CDBG funding. Community Development Supervisor Kathryn Crees said updated Census data this year showed Taftville qualifying again for the grant.

The city Recreation Department requested $96,000 to replace the two basketball courts adjacent to the Taftville Volunteer Fire Department. The popular courts have crumbling pavement, with grass and weeds growing through wide gaps, and rusted fencing and hoops. The project would rip out existing pavement and equipment and replace them.

The city Housing Authority requested $75,000 for the third phase of renovations to the Rosewood Manor public housing complex.

Other grant applications included annual requests from the city Human Services Department for $50,000 for the Norwich Works job training program and $15,000 for rapid rehousing and shelter diversion program for homeless people. Safe Futures requested $15,000 for its Norwich-based program. Other applications were:

New Haven-based program Children in Placement, $10,000 for a program for foster children.

Thames Valley Council for Community Action, $20,000 for Home Again rapid rehousing for homeless families.

OIC-New London County job training program, $25,000.

ARC-Eastern Connecticut, $14,850.

Community Development office, $100,000 for demolition.

Community Development office, $200,000 for property rehabilitation program.

Public Works Department, $82,300 for handicapped accessibility ramps.

Norwich Fire Department, $36,982 for upgrades to emergency operations center.

Community Development program administration, $178,570.