Join Your TownBusiness 
Roads, Nypro get $4M grant boost
By Patrick Brodrick
Thu Jul 05, 2007, 08:27 AM EDT
Last week, town officials announced that Clinton is set to become the beneficiary of a cash windfall that most communities can only hope for in these tight fiscal times.
On Wednesday, Public Works Superintendent Chris McGown informed the Board of Selectmen his department managed to secure $3.2 million in state funding to make much-needed improvements to two of the town’s worst roads. And on Thursday, Don Lowe, community and economic director, announced that his office, along with help from State Rep. Harold Naughton Jr., was granted $665,000 through the Massachusetts Opportunity and Expansion Jobs Capital program (MORE).
“This is a brand-new grant that the [Gov. Deval L.] Patrick Administration has come up with and it is exactly the type of thing the state should be doing,” Lowe said Friday. “It’s encouraging job creation and it is partnering businesses with communities.”
The program, which was created as part of an economic stimulus package, was signed into law last year. Lowe said the state plans to give out $100 million in grant money in two rounds throughout the year — $50 million now and another $50 million in the fall. Grant money can only be used for infrastructure improvements that will prompt an employer to expand its job base.
The great thing about the MORE grant, Lowe said, is that instead of having one pot of money available statewide, which could be devoured by larger cities, the money is broken out regionally, so smaller communities like Clinton get a chance at it.
The $665,000 will be used to help the town make improvements to drainage on Nypro’s property on School Street, and construct an additional 30 parking spaces for its employees off Pleasant Street. The town will also build a stairway leading from the new parking area down to the company’s parking lot.
In turn, the plastics manufacturer has agreed to invest more than $10 million to build two new “clean rooms,” sterile environments used in the manufacturing of plastic products, in the portion of the building that formerly housed Automated Assemblies. Along with the clean rooms, Nypro will also be creating an additional 100 jobs at its Clinton plant. Because the area where the sterile rooms will be located is prone to flooding, Nypro had been hesitant to build the rooms.
“In round numbers, it is about $300,000 to do the drainage and a little more than $300,000 to do the parking and stairway,” Lowe said. “You always have to look for the but-for argument, and in this case the but-for argument was insuring that there is proper drainage down there for the clean rooms. Chris [McGown] deserves a lot of the credit because he was the one that came up with the idea for creating the additional parking on Pleasant Street, which was a big part of this grant.”
During the June 27 selectmen’s meeting, McGown told the board he had both good and bad news.
“The good news is we have been approved to get some money through the Mass. Highway Department’s Transportation Improvement Program,” McGown said. “The bad news is we have to use our Chapter 90 money to pay for the designs of the projects. We’ll need to come up with a substantial amount of money, but to not do it is just throwing this money away.”
McGown explained that the state agreed to give the town $2.1 million to make improvements to Water Street and Bolton Road, and another $1.1 million to repair the north end of High Street, from the traffic lights to Allen Street.
Only certain roads qualify to receive this money, McGown said, which is why he chose Water and High streets. The money will be used to repair drainage, curbing and sidewalks on both streets, as well as repave both roads.
“To get this money, the roads have to be through routes,” McGown said. “Anyone that has driven down Water Street can tell you it’s a nightmare. My thinking is that we should pave the worst roads that are the heaviest traveled and have new water lines. It doesn’t make sense to do all this work on a street that we are going to have to dig up in a year to replace a water pipe.”
The board voted to allow McGown to start soliciting bids for design work on both projects.
(Patrick Brodrick can be reached at 978-365-8044 or at pbrodric@cnc.com.)
Editor's note: the original version of this story incorrectly stated that the MORE grant was only one of seven awarded in the state.
