After substantial discussions over recent weeks, Marion’s Community Preservation Committee voted on March 5 to finalize its Fiscal Year 2022 recommendations of applications received for town and state-matching funds under the state’s Community Preservation Act.
Nine applications will be recommended for CPA funding at Spring Town Meeting. Ten applications had originally been presented before the CPC, one of which came off the final list and a second that was substantially limited from its original scope. Both changes cited eligibility issues.
The vast majority of available funds are recommended by Friday’s CPC vote for Town of Marion projects including $90,000 for completion of the Town House Annex exterior and another $90,000 for near completion of the Town House’s Main Street entrance. CPA funds would pay for the design of a historically appropriate entry, the replacement of entry doors and windows, and restoration of the Annex facade as it faces Main Street.
The Annex project originally requested $221,000 but was redesigned before presentation to the CPC by focusing on building work for $90,000 that will empty the final $33,440.99 in the Historical Preservation Commission’s account and also take $56,555.01 from undesignated funds. The concrete steps on the Main Street side will be completed at a later date.
The other Town of Marion applications recommended by the CPC for funding include $30,000 for the Historical Commission’s cultural inventory, $30,000 to construct an asphalt, multi-use (walking) path to be installed on the grounds of the Cushing Community Center, $10,000 to purchase and install approximately 1,100 feet of split-post and rail fencing at Silvershell Beach, and a sixth town application for $5,675 to fund and place 250 cast-aluminum grave markers on veterans’ graves at town cemeteries.
Sippican Historical Society was approved for a recommendation of $25,000 in CPA funding for its ongoing archival cataloguing, and Elizabeth Taber Library was approved for a recommendation of $4,867 in funding to complete its Reading Circle bench with four granite book covers celebrating diversity in authorship and readership.
The Sippican Women’s Club had hoped for CPA funding to cover a wider scope of upgrades for the historic building housing Handy’s Tavern, but the CPC determined the restoration of the building’s front and rear entry doors to be the limits of applicability at $4,200.
Marion’s Recreation Department boating program, which originally submitted a $30,000 request, was a poor fit for CPA funding as presented, an outcome that representative Chris Collings readily accepted and took back to the drawing board in his effort to get the program sufficiently funded.
Prior to the application votes, the CPC voted to honor Town Administrator Jay McGrail’s request that CPA funding earmarked for the waterproofing of the front area of the Town House’s first floor be applied to all of the floor, the approval not changing the amount of money.
At the conclusion of the meeting, CPC member and Board of Selectmen Chairman Randy Parker thanked CPC Chairman Jeff Doubrava for his three years of service in the CPC’s lead role.
The next meeting of the Marion CPC will be held in December.
Marion Community Preservation Committee
By Mick Colageo