NEWRY – Three months after the town learned it had been awarded a $120,000 federal grant, town officials decided they didn’t want it.
That’s because it came with strings attached.
At a meeting in May, selectmen learned that Newry had to front $120,000 of town money plus a $24,000 match if they wanted to eventually collect the money to create a new parking lot off Route 26 for the Grafton Loop Trail.
However, because that parking lot has already been built across Route 26 from Eddy Road, selectmen at Monday afternoon’s meeting decided they didn’t want the grant.
In other business, upon being notified by Administrative Assistant Sylvia Gray that the Fire Department had received a grant to buy safety equipment, selectmen were asked to accept the $2,000.
But now after having learned that the federal grant wasn’t the free money they thought it was, selectmen were reluctant to sign off on the grant without first understanding what conditions were attached to it. As a result, the board asked Gray to have the fire chief come to its next meeting to provide more details about the grant.
tkarkos@sunjournal.com
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