VAN BUREN, Maine — A small group of Van Buren residents attended an April 2 public hearing and showed support for a $100,000 grant through the federally funded Community Development Block Grant program that would help renovate and beautify four Main Street properties.
The grant, according to town manager Luke Dyer, will provide $25,000 each to four property owners. The properties are Saucier’s Market, the Gayety Theater building, a former Federal Housing Authority building on 64 Main St., and the former Et Cetera shop on 68 Main St.
Local brothers Jason and Dayton Grandmaison are working to renovate the town’s iconic Gayety Theater building in a way that preserves much of its historic details.
The town of Van Buren in early February also received the state’s first Lightning Stabilization Grant, worth $25,000, to help renovate the former Et Cetera shop into the Acadian Arts Center, which will contain a fully accessible public gallery, an arts education program and exhibitions centered around the area’s French-Canadian heritage.
The grant will only help fund repairs on parts of the building that are facing Main Street, which is why the four buildings were selected. Dyer said it will not fix the rear of any buildings.
Dyer said he recently did walk-throughs of each of the four buildings with the property owners to see how the buildings could be fixed with the money.
At Saucier’s Market, he said the facade that overhangs the building is in serious need of repairs. It is now at the point where the owner is unable to keep lights on underneath the canopy because it fills up with water and shorts them out.
At the 64 Main St. space, the funding would help replace siding and fix windows and doors.
Only one resident at the hearing had a question, and asked if town officials could clarify whether or not this grant would require a match funded with taxpayer money.
Dyer said the four recipients of the money would each have to match 25 percent of their $25,000. He said each of the building owners understands that this is part of the grant, and that they can choose to contribute their own in-kind labor, like contributing to the demolition work, to help offset some of these costs.
Dyer clarified that the public hearing was not to accept the funds, but for the town to receive public permission to apply for the money. With residents voting by a show of hands to accept the grant, town officials will submit the full application by April 11.
He said the town has a good chance of getting approved for the grant, as it was invited to apply.
“Hopefully we’ll get approved, and we’ll be able to start looking at the facade improvements that we’re going to do in July,” Dyer said. “And then hopefully have them done before fall.”
