Proposals to reroof the Hill Street elderly housing development, install smoke detectors, and replace deteriorating kitchens at the Jefferson Drive housing project took center stage during last night’s public hearing on the allocation of federal community development block grants.
Housing Authority Executive Director Kevin Maguire submitted formal written proposals requesting funds to reroof the Hill Street elderly housing project and equip all public housing units with smoke detectors. Together, the two projects would utilize roughly $55,000 of the $300,000 available to the town under the federal block grant program, which is specifically designed to benefit low- and moderate-income residents. Assistant Town Manager Bernard Cooper noted that under federal guidelines, low income was defined using 1970 figures as an annual income of $9,159 for a family of four, with projected 1980 figures expected to reach $15,520.
Jefferson Drive Kitchens and Resident Input
Addressing the board, Paul Klein, representing the Norwood Housing Tenants Association, urged officials to allocate an estimated $100,000 to replace rotted cabinets and faulty plumbing in the kitchens of the Jefferson Drive family housing units. Town General Manager John J. Carroll, Maguire, and Housing Authority member Phyllis McDonough agreed to inspect the Jefferson Drive conditions firsthand.
Other residents weighed in on potential uses, including Robert Pain, who inquired whether grant funds could support youth employment programs. Cooper explained that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program is “biased toward facility rehabilitation and not toward social services.” Town Meeting member Waldo Nasson asked whether the federal grants required local matching funds, to which Selectman William J. Plasko and Carroll replied in the negative.
With a third public hearing scheduled for Wednesday night, officials are gathering community input before finalizing recommendations for the Board of Selectmen. All formal grant applications must be submitted to HUD by October 1 to secure funding.
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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