Two groups of Hilltowns were among the 57 communities across teh state awarded a total of $28 million in Community Development Block Grants this week by the Baker-Polito administration.
Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Peru, Plainfield, Westhampton and Worthington will share a grant of $894,110 that will be used to provide assistance with housing repairs, child care, elder services and the Hilltown Food Pantry.
The Hilltown Community Development Corp. applied for the grant on behalf of the seven towns.
“This is really good news for our social services network out here,” said Dave Christopolis, executive director of the organization.
Christopolis said that some of the money will be used to repair a total of 13 houses within the seven towns.
“There is no shortage of people on the waiting list for home repairs,” he said. “Most of the work done is for health and safety issues like lead removal, structural stability, roof and stair repairs, access ramps, wells and septic and occasionally asbestos removal.”
Christopolis said that the rest of the money is earmarked for four social service programs, including the Hilltown Elder Network, which serves about 100 seniors, assisting them with things like cleaning, organizing, shopping, transportation and general wellness checks.
The Health Outreach Program for Elders, which provides “in-home” medical services to homebound elders through home nursing, medication and podiatry home visits will also receive some of the money.
The two other programs to share in the funding are the Hilltown Food Pantry in Goshen and the Child Care Voucher Program.
The Community Development Block Grant program is federally funded and helps communities to pursue economic development project and support the needs of low- and moderate-income residents.
“We had asked for $1.1 million which is the maximum amount you can get,” Christopolis said. “We got a little bit less than that, but looking at the overall picture we did pretty good here in western Mass.”
Other communities in western Massachusetts which received grants are Amherst, Easthampton, Greenfield, Huntington, Middlefield and Chester, Montague, Palmer, Shelburne, Buckland and Colrain.
Cummington singer songwriter Laura Wetzler, has released her single “The Fracking Blues,” a song inspired by local anti-fracking and anti-pipeline activism in western Massachusetts.
Wetzler, who has been called “a road warrior” by Sing Out! Magazine, typically tours internationally 10 months out of the year, but this season she remained at home, and in late February finished writing her new song.
The piece was mixed and mastered by engineer Angelo Quaglia at Northfire Recording Studio in Amherst.
Available as a CD or a download through CDbaby.com, a portion of each sale of “The Fracking Blues” EP single will be donated to environmental defense organizations.
For more information on Wetzler, visit laurawetzler.com.
The Chesterfield Council on Aging will host the Annual COA Hilltown Picnic at noon Monday June at the Chesterfield Community Center.
Picnic fare will include hotdogs and hamburgers and attendees are asked to bring a dessert to share, or to make a small donation.
Musical entertainment will be provided by the Horse Mountain Jazz Band.
Ideas for the column on life in the Hilltowns can be sent to Fran Ryan at Fryan.gazette @gmail.com.