Williamstown CPA Requests Come in Well Above Available Funds
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Community Preservation Committee faces nearly $300,000 in funding requests for fiscal year 2026.
Problem is, the town only anticipates having about $200,000 worth of funds available.
Seven non-profits have submitted eight applications totaling $293,797 for FY26. A spreadsheet detailing both FY26 revenue and known expenses already earmarked from Community Preservation Act revenues shows the town will have $202,535 in "unrestricted balance available" for the year that begins on July 1.
Ultimately, the annual town meeting in May will decide whether to allocate any of that $202,535.
Starting on Wednesday, the CPC will begin hearing from applicants to begin a process by which the committee drafts warrant articles recommending the May meeting approve any of the funding requests.
Part of that process will include how to address the $91,262 gap between funds available and funds requested. In the past, the committee has worked with applicants to either scale back or delay requests to another year. Ultimately, it will be the panel's job to send the meeting articles that reflect the fiscal reality.
The individual requests range from a high of $100,000 from the trustees of the town's Affordable Housing Trust to a low of $8,000 from the Williamstown Historical Museum.
The full list of applicants, in order they were received by the town, as listed on the agenda for Wednesday's public hearing includes:
• Store at Five Corners Stewardship Association, $30,000 toward a $63,715 project to replace windows at the South Williamstown landmark.
• Purple Valley Trails, $50,000 toward a $750,000 project to build a skate park on town-owned land on Stetson Road.
• Purple Valley Trails, $25,000 toward a $125,000 project to continue to develop mountain bike trails along and above Berlin Road.
• Images Cinema, $51,197 toward a $2.2 million project to add a second screen to the historic Spring Street movie house.
• Williamstown Historical Museum, $8,000 toward an $11,000 project to restore three carriages from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, $14,000 toward a $40,372 project to rehabilitate the Lehovec River Walk on the banks of the Green River.
• The Affordable Housing Trust, $100,000 in unrestricted funds to support the trust's work to promote affordability in town, including its first-time homeowner mortgage assistance grants and emergency mortgage and rental assistance programs.
• Sand Springs Recreational Center, $15,000 toward an $18,000 goal to create a Scholarship Fund to "support the fiscal needs of community members who desire to utilize the facility throughout the year."
The last two applications, from the housing trust and the pool and recreation center, are identified on Wednesday's agenda as "late filed," and the first item on the agenda is a "discussion of late-filed applications."
Both applicants frequently have participated in the CPA process in the past.
In fact, the CPA is by far the largest source of funds for the housing trust, which has used the money to support projects like the Highland Woods senior housing project, two completed (and four planned) Habitat for Humanity homes, income-restricted apartments in the Cable Mills complex on Water Street and 24 first-time homeowners under the Richard DeMayo Mortgage Assistance Program, to name a few initiatives.
The CPC never has failed to send a request from the Affordable Housing Trust to town meeting since the trust's creation in 2012, and town meeting members have never failed to grant those requests.
The late arrival of the trust's application for FY26 stems from confusion at the trustees' Dec. 18 meeting about the deadline for those submissions.
Longtime Trustee Thomas Sheldon asked during the meeting whether the panel had discussed the application at its November meeting, which he missed.
That initiated a series of questions from Chair Daniel Gura about the deadline for the applications; Jan. 3 was listed as the deadline on the form posted on the town's website.
First, the town manager, who attended the AHT meeting via Zoom, said the deadlines were due "in the mid-January time frame." Later, when Gura pressed for specifics, Robert Menicocci said that he thought the deadline might be Jan. 18.
"My guess is it's not the 18th, because that's a Saturday," Gura replied. "But maybe it is a Saturday."
Jane Patton, who recently took the Select Board seat on the trust board and who represented the Select Board for several years on the CPC, then said, "It looks like it's Jan. 22."
Jan. 22 is the date of Wednesday's public hearing, where the Community Preservation Committee will begin its review of applications.
With the apparent impression that the trustees had until Jan. 22 to submit the application, Gura said it appeared there was enough time for individual members to develop a draft (based on prior years' applications) and for the full board to approve that draft at its Jan. 15 meeting.
In the case of Sand Springs, the application was submitted just after the noon deadline on Jan. 3 because of unanticipated circumstances, the non-profit's executive director said on Thursday.
"Unfortunately, my plans to take a last minute look at it before submittal were waylayed by a needed doctor's appointment for my kids, who had pneumonia and the flu that week," Henry Smith said in an email responding to an inquiry from iBerkshires.com. "So I was forced to submit the proposal from my car at the doctor's office and for whatever reason (likely faulty service) my application did not leave my inbox until 3 p.m. despite being sent well in advance of the noon deadline."
The Community Preservation Act, adopted by Williamstown in 2002, is a state program that allows municipalities to fund projects related to community housing, historic preservation and open space and recreation.
In Williamstown, the program is funded by a surcharge of 2 percent on property tax bills (state law allows for up to 3 percent) with the first $100,000 of property valuation excluded.
Tags: CPA,
