BARRE — The Granite City received $1.6 million in federal disaster recovery grants Thursday to repair damage caused by flooding.
Pointing to a nearby flood-damaged foundation of a former dry cleaning site on Enterprise Alley, city and state officials said the majority of the money will be used to clean up the contaminated site and improve city stormwater infrastructure.
Gov. Peter Shumlin said in a news conference at the site Thursday that the federal support has helped revitalize what has been a decaying downtown for many years. The funding for Enterprise Alley is the last piece of the puzzle to complete the city’s restoration following a major Main Street reconstruction project.
A $600,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency will be used to clean up the contaminated site at the former dry cleaning business. The other $1 million Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will be used to create new drainage systems and stormwater infrastructure.
Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon said the city will leverage this money.
“We’re not going to stop here,” he said. “We’re going to go all the way down here as far as the eye can see and we’re not going to stop until our success in Barre touches every single member of this community,” he said.
He said construction would likely begin in 2015.
