PATRICK-MURRAY
ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES $2.25 MILLION IN COMMUNITY INNOVATION CHALLENGE GRANTS
FOR MUNICIPALITIES, REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND PLANNING AGENCIES ACROSS MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON – Tuesday, February 12, 2013 – Lieutenant Governor
Timothy Murray and Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor today
announced the 27 recipients of the $2.25 million Community Innovation Challenge
(CIC) grant program to incentivize and support innovative regionalization and
other cost saving initiatives. These programs will change the way local
governments do business to maintain service delivery and stretch every tax
payer dollar as far as possible.
The 27 recipients
of the FY 2013 CIC grant program span 162 cities and towns. The
project recipients reflect geographic and income diversity across the
Commonwealth, including several Gateway Cities.
“The first round of the Community Innovation Challenge Grant
program was a success, attracting wide interest by municipalities and planning
agencies to develop regionalization and innovation strategies on the local
level,” said Lieutenant Governor Murray. “We’re excited to continue this
program with the second round of award recipients who have all proposed more
innovative opportunities and cost-saving measures to collaborate, regionalize
and maintain valuable local services.”
“Our new fiscal reality demands that government change the
way it does business to stretch every taxpayer dollar as far as possible,” said
Secretary Shor. “The Patrick-Murray Administration’s CIC grant program is just
one of the many ways we are working to give cities and towns the tools they
need to drive change in local government. I am excited that the second round of
this program will provide for the continuation and expansion of some really
great programs and jump-start brand new ones.”
Regionalization is an opportunity for neighboring
communities to build partnerships to engage in shared services, inter-municipal
agreements, municipal collaborations, consolidations, mutual aid and regional
planning to reduce the risk of duplicating efforts and unnecessary spending of
limited taxpayer dollars. With 351 cities and towns spanning the Commonwealth,
there are countless ways to collaborate and work together to maintain important
local services and deliver those services effectively and efficiently.
The CIC grant program is one more example of the kind of
reforms the Patrick-Murray Administration has made in challenging fiscal times
to make government more effective and efficient. CICG provides incentives, such
as technical assistance, training and other one-time or transition funding for
municipal leaders to work together to pursue innovative ways to deliver
critical services to taxpayers more efficiently. Ideal projects for the grant
program include those with the potential for greatest impact, high levels of
innovation and substantial potential cost savings for municipalities.
“I commend the Patrick-Murray Administration for their
continued support in securing funds for the Community Innovation Challenge
Grant Program,” said House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo. “As the cities and towns
across the Commonwealth begin to emerge from this economic downturn, it remains
important that state leaders continue to find ways to make government more
effective and efficient.”
In the FY 2012 budget, Governor Patrick authorized the
development of a competitive grant program to encourage and incentivize
regionalization based upon the belief that the most crucial and visible
interactions between government and citizen occur locally. A grant program was
proposed in the Governor’s budget, and supported by the Legislature, providing
$4 million for regionalization and other initiatives that will improve the
effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of local services. In FY 2012, the
Patrick-Murray Administration invested in 27 projects across the Commonwealth.
These projects involved 138 cities and towns and are currently being finished.
The results and outcomes of each project will be shared with the general public
this summer on the ANF website.
FY 2013 Community Innovation Challenge Grant
Recipients:
Education
Creating in District Programs for
Students with Severe Emotional and Behavioral Disorders ($110,800)
School districts of the towns of Agawam, East Longmeadow, Longmeadow,
Ludlow, and West Springfield; Hampden-Wilbraham Regional
School District; Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional
School District
Berkshire
County
Curriculum Frameworks Project ($89,520)
Central Berkshire Regional School
District (Lead); Adams-Cheshire Regional School District; Berkshire Hills
Regional School District; Northern Berkshire Vocational Technical School
District; Southern Berkshire Regional School District; The public school
districts of the towns of Clarksburg, Florida, Savoy, Lee, and Lenox
Expanding Regional Services for Students
with Dyslexia ($73,000)
Manchester-Essex
Regional School
District
Regionalizing Technology Support Services ($52,037)
School districts of the Towns of Richmond (Lead), Hancock,
and New Ashford
School StatNet Pilot ($38,326)
Cities of Somerville
(Lead), Fitchburg, Revere,
and Chicopee
Financial Services
Regionalization of Assessment Services ($35,000)
Towns of Amherst (Lead) and Pelham
Public Health
Public Health Nursing Program, Year 2 ($54,840)
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission
(Lead); City of North Adams; Towns of Adams, Alford, Becket, Clarksburg,
Dalton, Charlemont, Great Barrington, Hancock, Lanesborough, Mt. Washington,
New Marlborough, Peru, Richmond, Sandisfield, Savoy, Sheffield, Washington,
West Stockbridge, Williamstown, Windsor
Local Boards of Health On-Line Tobacco
Retailer Certification Program ($25,250)
Towns of Lee (Lead), Lenox, and
Stockbridge
Cooperative Public Health Service ($68,317)
Franklin Regional Council of Governments
(Lead); Towns of Buckland, Charlemont, Conway,
Deerfield, Gill, Hawley, Heath, Monroe, Leyden, Shelburne
Hampden County Health Alliance ($45,000)
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (Lead); Cities of Holyoke and Springfield;
Towns of Westfield, West Springfield, Blandford,
Granville, Ludlow,
Palmer, and Southwick
Public Works and Environmental Affairs
Regional Highway Equipment Cooperative-
Phase 2 ($24,500)
Towns of Brookfield
(Lead), Brimfield, East Brookfield, Hardwick, Warren,
and West Brookfield
Northern Middlesex Storm Water
Collaborative ($98,000)
Northern Middlsex Council of Governments
(Lead); City of Lowell; Towns of Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable,
Pepperell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford
Cape Cod
Great White Shark Research and Outreach Program ($50,000)
Towns of Orleans
(Lead); Chatham, Truro,
Nantucket, Harwich, Yarmouth, Dennis, Wellfleet,
Provincetown, Brewster, and Barnstable
Regionalizing Municipal Storm Water
Management in Central Massachusetts ($115,000)
Towns of Spencer (Lead), Auburn,
Charlton, Dudley, Holden, Leicester, Millbury, Oxford, Paxton, Shrewsbury,
Spencer, Sturbridge, Webster, West Boylston, Boylston, Grafton, Hardwick,
Monson, New Braintree, Northbridge, Northborough, North Brookfield, Palmer,
Princeton, Rutland, Southbridge, Sterling, Upton, Ware, Westborough, Wilbraham
Regional Department of Public Facilities
and Infrastructure ($30,000)
Towns of Wenham (Lead) and Hamilton; Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District
Information Technology
Central Massachusetts
Regional Electronic Permitting Collaborative ($112,000)
Central Massachusetts
Regional Planning Commission (CMRPC) (Lead); Towns of Barre, Blackstone,
Boylston, Dudley, Hardwick, Leicester, Northbridge, Spencer, and Upton
Hampshire Cloud ($80,000)
Hampshire Council of Governments (Lead);
Towns of Chesterfield
and Hadley
Electronic Weights and Measures
Inspection ($21,550)
Towns of Holliston (Lead), Ashland, Medway, and
Millis
Malden
311 and Workers’ Compensation Reentry Program ($27,780)
City of Malden
Regionally Improving Citizen Access and
Service Delivery ($80,000)
Merrimack Valley Planning Commission (Lead); Cities of
Amesbury, Haverhill, Lawrence,
Methuen, and Newburyport;
Towns of Andover, North Andover, and Salisbury
Expansion of the Southeast Fire
Department Electronic Records and Permitting Collaborative ($75,000)
Southeast Regional Planning and Economic
Development District (SRPEDD) (Lead); City of Fall River;
Towns of North Attleborough, Seekonk, Marion, Westport, and Fairhaven
Municipal Open Checkbook System ($120,000)
Cities of Woburn
(Lead), Chelsea, Chicopee,
and Revere; Town of Brookline
Transportation
Expansion and Implementation of a
Reconfigured Transportation Management Association ($60,000)
Towns of Acton
(Lead); Boxborough, Concord, Littleton,
Maynard, Stow,
and Westford
Regional Paratransit Services (Two Town
Trolley) ($30,600)
Towns of East
Longmeadow (Lead) and Hampden
Library
The Ames
Free Library’s Creative Commons @ Queset House ($40,000)
Town of Easton
Public Safety
Northwestern District Anti-Crime Task
Force Program ($81,288)
Franklin Regional Council of Governments
(Lead); Cities of Greenfield and Northampton; Towns of
Athol, Amherst, and Montague
NoFires ($63,750)
Hampshire Council of Governments (Lead);
City of Holyoke; Towns of Athol, Erving, New Salem, Orange, Petersham,
Phillipston, Royalston, Warwick,
and Wendell
Rutland
Regional Animal Control ($83,904)
Towns of Rutland (Lead), Oakham, Barre, and Paxton
Housing
Massachusetts
Housing Data Portal ($50,000)
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
Veterans’ Serivces
Expansion of Professional Regionalized
Veterans Services ($35,083)
City of Northampton
(Lead); Towns of Amherst, Chesterfield,
Williamsburg, Cummington, Goshen,
Pelham, Worthington,
Hadley, and Middlefield
