Downtown revitalization studied
By Elizabeth Prata

Gray--The Town of Gray is a recipient of an $11,000 Planning Grant to be used to study ways to implement downtown revitalization. This is the first, necessary, step to complete before the town can apply for the larger pool of money available for actual Downtown Revitalization work, according to Town Planner Dick Cahill. "It is a prerequisite that sets us up for the second stage," Mr. Cahill said.

Two consultants answered the Request for Proposals (RFP) for this initial study, Gorrill-Palmer Engineers with Terry Duon, and the Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG.) A group of volunteer interviewers met on February 24th to go over the two RFPs and conduct interviews.

The volunteer group consisted of Town Manager Mitch Berkowitz, Mr. Cahill, local business owner Kevin Tombarelli, John Grolley of Key Bank, Jeanne Carpentier representing the Gray Community Economic Development Committee, and Peter Gellerson representing the Gray Planning Board. The group decided to ask the two vendors to work together and present a joint proposal in March. Both GPCOG and Gorrill-Palmer noted that the $11,000 was a limiting budget and that they would rely to a great extent on local staff to help complete the study.

Mr. Berkowitz said that "The meeting on the 24th was actually an interview process. This group is only conducting the interviews and is not the downtown committee."

Mr. Cahill said that the Downtown Revitalization Committee would be composed of a half dozen volunteers who have some interest or connection to downtown Gray. It would be a Council-Appointed Committee, to come later.

Mr. Berkowitz continued, "As a result of meeting with the two vendors, the group felt that the two vendors should work together and present a collaborative plan based upon our modified scope of services. This ultimately should better serve the whole effort by bringing the key talents and resources together. We expect that another interview meeting will take place sometime in March after which the group will make its recommendations to the Planner and Manager. If we concur, we would engage their services and Dick Cahill would supervise the contract work."

Mr. Cahill said that the next steps would be to notify the state that their planning is underway, to determine a scope of services to outline the work, and ask the Council to appoint the Downtown Revitalization Committee and oversee the completion of the study. Then they would look toward the second stage of the process, which is apply for the downtown revitalization money.

According to the Maine Office of Community Development, "The Downtown Revitalization Grant (DTR) Program's Maximum grant award is $500,000. The DTR provides funds for communities to implement comprehensive, integrated and innovative solutions to identified problems facing their downtown districts. These downtown revitalization projects must be part of a strategy that targets downtown service and business districts and will lead to future public and private investment.

Eligible activities include all those eligible under the Public Facilities, Public Infrastructure, Public Service, Housing Assistance, Economic Development and Community Enterprise Grant programs as relevant to the revitalization of a downtown district. A community must have completed a comprehensive downtown strategic plan or updated an existing plan within in the past five years."