State awards $4M in innovation grants

The Patrick administration has awarded a total of $4 million in grants to more than 30 local and regional projects that promote efficiency and regionalization.

Spencer and 12 other Worcester County towns received $310,000 to help develop a strategy for complying with federal mandates regarding stormwater run-off into rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. The funding will be used to create a data management tool that will make it easier for the towns to comply with federal standards, according to Spencer Town Administrator Tom Gaudette.

“We believe that this product, at the end of the day, will be something that everyone in the Commonwealth can use,” Gaudette said during a March 16 ceremony at the State House honoring the grant recipients.

The ceremony also showcased a plan by Ashland and Hopkinton that would form a “fire services collaborative” serving the two towns. The two towns’ fire departments “are almost exact replicas of each other,” according to Ashland Town Manager John Petrin. “We have almost the same amount of people; we operate the same way.”

Petrin said that the plan is not intended to reduce overall fire department staffing. He said the emphasis would be on sharing equipment and “repositioning” personnel, perhaps through a new fire station on the Ashland-Hopkinton border.

The $175,000 grant from the state is designed in part to help determine the plan’s feasibility.

Grants also were announced for the following projects:

• $58,000 for Brookfield, Brimfield, East Brookfield, Warren and West Brookfield for a regional equipment sharing cooperative

• $25,500 for Harwich and Chatham for a wash-water recycle system for commercial fishing boats

• $132,445 for the Pioneer Valley Conservation Commissions Compact

• $400,000 for adapting Boston’s “CitizenConnect” smartphone application for use by other Massachusetts cities and towns

• $500,000 for the Cape Cod Commission and Cape Cod towns to automate inspections, permitting and licensing

• $290,710 for Cloud-based open-source municipal financial management serving Royalston and other communities

• $110,835 for a system that would enable online building permits in several Berkshire County towns

• $373,400 for adapting performance management programs in Amesbury, Lowell, Somerville, Woburn and Worcester for use elsewhere in the state

• $119,375 for a public health cooperative planned for Franklin County

• $40,000 for the Berkshire Health Alliance Public Health Nurse program

• $15,000 for Ashland, Medway and Hopkinton to deploy electronic means of inspecting food

• $47,000 for Northampton, Springfield, Greenfield, Chesterfield, Easthampton, Granby, Montague and Ware to promote fire safety

• $19,000 for dog control in Franklin County

• $150,000 for a regional animal control officer in Norfolk County

• $76,800 for electronic fire department records and permitting in the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District

• $73,633 for town and school facilities management and information technology consolidation in East Bridgewater

• $200,00 for a regional payroll program in Plainville and Walpole

• $46,000 for a centralized facility and infrastructure asset maintenance system in Hanover

• $28,210 for consolidating information technology and maintenance services in Middleborough

• $184,575 for shared transportation resources among Acton, Boxborough, Littleton, Maynard, Stow and the Clock Tower Place Office Park in Maynard

• $29,967 for equipping the Andover library with an electronic bulletin board to share information with residents during an emergency

Norfolk County received $244,000 for regionalizing veterans’ services, $89,000 for a regional services coordinator, and $237,000 for regional municipal engineering services.

Regional school districts received a total of approximately $840,000 for assorted projects.