March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Pittsfield council approves grant bids> Funds would pay for community center study, help local company expand

PITTSFIELD — Pittsfield councilors gave their blessing this week to the submission of two grant proposals to the Community Development Block Grant program.

The first grant, which Town Manager D. Dwight Dogherty described as “iffy,” would assist a local business with a 50 percent expansion project. The company is now located in leased space, said Dogherty, and desperately needs to expand. New jobs also would be created.

The second grant generated a great deal of interest and approval at a recent council meeting. The grant would provide up to $10,000 to conduct a feasibility study for a town community center and pool complex. Dogherty said the current pool, an outdoor facility, originally had a 25-year life and is now entering its 42nd season. It has been plagued by maintenance problems and will last only another summer or two at best, said former Recreation Director Peg Gray.

The planning grant would allow the town to hire a coordinator who would gather all pertinent information on the project and then write the grant. Dogherty said that 87 percent of more than 1,000 voters exiting the polls last November indicated their support, through grants and private fund-raisers, of such a project. In addition, he said, the local Kiwanis Club, the pool’s original constructor, has pledged $10,000 to the project, and the town currently has a reserve fund with several thousand dollars earmarked for pool replacement.

“We envision a full-service recreation department,” Dogherty told councilors Tuesday night, “consisting of a center, the pool and the theater. This would be a citizen-created study with a paid coordinator.”

Councilors also approved a request to the planning board to begin making recommendations on three outstanding issues: signs in residential and industrial zones; retail sales in industrial zones; and the location of a driving range within a residential area.

The issues all were proposed last year and councilors have been upset that local businesspeople have been stymied by their lack of ability to wind through red tape to attempt approval. Mayor Yvonne Young said that after a discussion Monday with planning board members, she was asked to make a formal request on behalf of the council to have the planners review the issues and make recommendations to the council.

Young said the planning board intends to hold a public hearing on the issues on April 7 and, depending on the planners’ recommendation, the council can take their own actions 15 days later. “We need to get this resolved and moved off dead center,” said Young, “to allow these businesses to have a decision.”

In other business, the council tabled action on a land purchase agreement with Dennis and Donna York due to Dennis York’s death last Friday.

The council also set several public hearings for April 1, including:

A request from Pittsfield Woolen Yarns for the exchange of a triangular piece of land to allow for a new addition to their mill to be constructed with Central Street’s right of way.

A request from Ernest Bryant for a taxi license.

A request from K&D Golf Inc. for a liquor license renewal.


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