As grant money trickles in, more needed in Laurel City

Recent news that Winsted has received more than $100,000 in grants for energy efficiency and police equipment came as pleasant surprise when Interim Town Manager Wayne Dove announced the windfall, but the town’s work raising money is far from done. Winsted residents should hope this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to increasing revenue for the town.

Winsted obviously needs help when it comes to school infrastructure, general economic development and road work, but recent budgets have been tight and the amount of grant money coming in has been short. Dove acknowledged that the town needs to brainstorm ways to obtain more grant money and asked members of the public to “put on their thinking caps.�

The public might respond by telling Town Hall to get its hand on the phone, fingers to the keyboard and pen to paper. Winsted’s budget crisis is nothing new, and the past several town managers have all said economic development is a priority. That lip service hasn’t helped eliminate any of the “for sale� signs on the south side of Main Street. In fact, the number of essentially abandoned properties has increased.

Dove did note that Winsted is in the process of seeking grants in four areas — neighborhood initiatives, economic development, small business and additional police funding. He said there could be “potentially a couple million dollars� available to the town. While grants alone won’t save the town from its economic woes, every dollar invested in the community is a help.

As Winsted continues to experience financial hardship in a state that is in the middle of a fiscal nightmare, some creative thinking on the revenue side of the budget is desperately needed. The town should be aggressively marketing properties to investors — with or without a bunch of paper called a Plan of Conservation and Development — and doing everything it can to make sure downtown storefronts are occupied.

For the businesses that have hung in there throughout the economic meltdown of the past decade, congratulations. Hopefully, a recovery is just around the corner.

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