There will be $20,000 directed toward rebuilding the Lanes Cove Fish Shack, $25,415 to continue patching up the fishing vessel Phyllis A., and $150,000 toward the city of Gloucester’s purchase of the Brierneck Crossing site.
Those projects are just three of the Gloucester Community Preservation Committee’s eight recommendations for spending this year’s Community Preservation Act money.
In all, committee members recommended spending $260,715 on eight one-time projects this year. They range from surveys to window replacements, and are expected to be allocated mostly in $10,000 to $20,000 chunks, with the largest amount going toward Brierneck Crossing.
The committee received 12 applications this year, but could only fund the eight.
“All of them were great,” said committee Co-Chairman J.J. Bell. “There weren’t any that didn’t make sense; we just have limited resources, that’s all.”
Gloucester collected $544,725 in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding this year, but $215,000 of that goes toward the $2 million bond for the second phase of the City Hall restoration project.
In addition, $55,472 is to be held as a 10 percent reserve for community housing projects, according to the committee’s recommendation packet.
The Community Preservation Fund, drawn from both a 1 percent surcharge on property tax rates in Gloucester and a partial state match allocated from property deed fees paid to registrars’ offices, raises money for projects that include open space acquisitions or maintenance, historic preservation and affordable housing projects. The committee received no affordable housing projects this year, the committee’s report indicated.
The Brierneck Crossing project, put forward by the nonprofit Friends of Good Harbor. is this year’s largest CPA designated project, by a long shot.
The newly created nonprofit group worked out a deal to buy the Brierneck Crossing site from developer James Grifoni for $720,000, with the city to take ownership of the property. The site across Thatcher Road from the main Good Harbor Beach parking lot had been targeted for a controversial condominium project fought by both neighbors and the city itself.
Part of the city’s purchase cost is to come from the $150,000 in CPA money, another part from the Friends’ private fund-raising efforts, and the remainder from a state land acquisition grant, which is still pending.
The CPA project recommendations still require approval by City Council.
The committee’s other recommended projects include $15,000 for replacing windows at the Thomas E. Reed building, put forward by the North Shore Art Association, $20,000 to go toward rebuilding the Lanes Cove Fish Shack, $10,000 for digitizing the Cape Ann Museum’s collection of Phillips and Holloran architectural plans, and $5,000 for archiving at the Magnolia Historical Society.
Other recommendations are $20,300 to help restore the mill building at Maritime Gloucester’s marine railway, $25,415 toward the restoration of the Phyllis A., the city’s longest operating gillnet fishing vessel, and $15,000 toward appraisals and surveys of privately owned parcels in the North Gloucester woods, sought by the city’s Open Space and Recreation Committee and the Community Development Department.
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Steven Fletcher can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com.
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