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Proposed housing development improvements touted by residents

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Community Development Block Grant funding towards replacing three apartment buildings, at left, on Sawtelle Lane, off High Street in Farmington is proposed. Voters will be asked to approve the partnership grant application at no cost to the town.
Community Development Block Grant funding towards replacing three apartment buildings, at left, on Sawtelle Lane, off High Street in Farmington is proposed. Voters will be asked to approve the  $500,000 partnership grant application at no cost to the town.

FARMINGTON – Tenants, board members and town officials all spoke glowingly about the improvements accomplished and those proposed to replace three deteriorating apartment buildings with new models on Sawtelle Lane at a public hearing held Tuesday night.

The public hearing was a required step for application of a $500,000 federal Community Development Block Grant to help fund about a third of the next phase of housing improvements to the low- to moderate-income 82 High Street residential project.

A $500,000 federal Home Loan Bank grant and a $540,000 loan for the project were secured late last year with the help of Franklin Savings Bank personnel. The up to $500,000 more of the $1.54 million total project cost to be applied for through the CDBG program will allow the existing two-story, three-building complex to be razed and for the purchase and installation of three, two-story, modular four-unit buildings at the site near the High Street entrance to Sawtelle Lane.

The plan is to sequentially install one building, move the tenants in and then tear down one building to prevent anyone from being displaced, “so no one will be stressed,” said Rachel Jackson Hodsdon of Creative Energy LLC, which manages the housing development.

For the nearly five years her agency has been managing the 82 High Street project, “we’ve been 100 percent full,” she said, referring to the need for affordable housing within a walkable distance to downtown Farmington.

The nearly 30-year-old housing development was established by local churches, Western Maine Community Action and the Maine Housing Authority which pooled resources and raised the funding necessary to purchase the privately-owned development, that at the time was overcrowded with substandard trailers and scheduled for demolition, install new mobile homes and make upgrades to the three existing apartment buildings.

More recent improvements were made to the mobile homes in 2010 and last fall new sewer and water lines were installed throughout the neighborhood. Razing the aging apartment buildings and replacing them with new modular structures was the best logistically and most cost effective plan, board member Janet Smith said, in order to keep the rent affordable.

The overall improvements over the years were praised by the several residents attending the hearing.

“It’s a remarkable improvement in the appearance,” said Roger Condit, a 26-year member of the 82 High Street board of directors. He added that where once calls for police to respond to the neighborhood were commonplace, there are much fewer now. “The function and appearance is ever so much improved,” he said.

Caitlin Carson-Gabriel, an 82 High Street resident, noted tenants regularly serve on the board and hold neighborhood counsel meetings every other month.

“People are looking out for each other. We’re all part of a community,” she said.

Voters at the annual town meeting on Monday, March 28 will be asked to approve the federal Community Development Block Grant application totaling up to $500,000 for the project. The application comes at no cost to the partnering municipality.

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