Avon Town Manager Withdraws Recommendation for Regional Equipment Grant

Avon shelved plans to apply for a state grant with area towns to share new Public Works equipment after some of the other towns backed out. 

Avon Town Manager Brandon Robertson was scheduled to make a recommendation to the Town Council at its Thursday meeting that the town apply for the state Office of Policy Management's Inter-Community Capital Equipment Grant, but withdrew his recommendation. 

The town's Public Works Department was planning on using the grant to pay for a trailer with mounted "Work Ahead" sign boards for construction and an asphalt recycling machine to repair pavement with heated, recycled materials, Assistant Town Manager Steve Bartha said. 

Robertson said that the "cost escalated" for Avon's portion after other towns backed out.

Town Council Chairman Mark Zacchio wrote in an email to Patch that two of the four original towns partnering for the grant "decided not to participate so the cost sharing portion to Avon was too high and not particularly worth while for us."  

Last year, Avon applied for a joint Regional Performance Incentive Program grant for the asphalt recycler with Simsbury and Granby, but the state pulled the funds after a projected deficit in Connecticut's budget, according to Bartha. 

In 2008, Avon used a similar regional grant in partnership with seven area towns for equipment to move the sides of the bike trails. Bartha said that grants like this for shared equipment works well if a town doesn't need equipment year-round and can share it. 

However, Avon may apply for another grant opportunity down the road, Robertson said. 

"There's also a reintroduction of a grant expected this December for the same type of equipment at 100% reimbursement so we will certainly apply for that should it happen," Zacchio said.