Funds being raised for Greenville community building

GREENVILLE — In late 2022 the Moosehead Caring for Kids Foundation received $1,561,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending toward building a new facility on the campus of the Greenville Consolidated School on Pritham Avenue in the approximate footprint of the former Nickerson Elementary School. The foundation has designated the Town of Greenville as the grant subrecipient meaning that the community will build the new facility and the structure will be a municipal building.

The foundation, town, and Greenville Consolidated School are working together to plan and construct the building, which has yet to be named. The three have formed a committee known as the YES Project with acronym standing for youth, education, and sport.

The facility will house three collaborative activities, a childcare center, public preschool classrooms, and a community recreation center.

More funds will need to be raised for the project and Jennifer Clark of the 10-member Moosehead Caring for Kids Foundation Yes Project Committee told the select board more during an Aug. 21 meeting.

She said the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council has a brownfields grant for the community building for up to $30,000. “That has covered the entire expense for the (United State Department of Housing and Urban Development) requirements and then this new grant that we are looking at also requires environmental assessment,” Clark said.

“This year through public donations and business donations we have been able to raise $192,000,” she said. “Just as a reminder where we started on Jan. 1 this year we had $1,132 in the bank for this project, so we have had a lot of success for that. The community has been very giving and supportive and we’re so grateful.”

“We anticipate we can raise another $58,000,” Clark said, mentioning that those involved in fundraising do not want to solicit businesses that have already contributed.

She said other funding sources are being looked into and applied for, including a childcare expansion grant through the state for $250,000.

Clark said as with most projects, prices have increased with time and the community building is no exception.

“So we felt we needed another funding source to get us across the finish line,” she said. Clark said representatives of the offices of U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Angus King, I-Maine both recommended the Northern Border Regional Commission Catalyst Program and a grant for $1 million. 

The town would apply on behalf of the Moosehead Caring for Kids Foundation with a Sept. 6 pre-application deadline. By Sept. 20 the town would learn if the community can apply in full, with this application due by Oct. 20 and awards given out early in the new year.

She said Plan B would be looking into a community block grant through HUD for up to $3.5 million.

“There is enough time we can still make plans for next spring, next summer if the funding is in place to get it started,” Clark said.

She said material donations will likely be acquired, as the Yes Project Committee is working with suppliers and local businesses interested in a desire to partner in some form with donations and/or discounts.

“Once we know exactly what materials are needed we are going to put together a materials catalog so that anyone in town wants to make a donation of shingles or a door or a window or something like that they can,” Clark said.

Ideally site work would start in the spring, but funding needs to be in place by then. “Until we have a final design and drawings that reflect that we can’t get a more firm number from a contractor,” Clark said. She said the plan is to do a design build, as was done with the new Greenville Public Safety Building.

A conceptual layout drawing of the proposed building is online at https://greenvilleme.com/wp-content/uploads/24.02.19.pdf.

In other business, Greenville Planning Board Chair John Contreni said a public forum with Zoom option is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at the town office on the proposed approximate 60-acre Greenville Grove Subdivision in Greenville Junction. The subdivision is located off North Green Street on the peninsula going into Moosehead Lake on the eastern shore of the West Cove.

Earlier in the month the planning board conducted a site visit with developer Rodney Folsom Jr., broker/owner of the Folsom Realty Group. 

Town Manager Mike Roy said he believes Code Enforcement Officer Sarol sent out 75 abutter letters. About 40 phone calls have come in and people have stopped by with questions so the planning board is holding a forum on the night before its next regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 4.

“It’s the last large piece of land that’s undeveloped in town,” Conteni said. He said about 15 lots of varying acreage are planned for the subdivision. “Nice houses won’t be sitting on top of each other,” he said.

The public forum is the next step in a 7-step process for subdivision approval by the planning board.