16 Small Massachusetts Towns Share $3M In Grants

MONTAGUE, Mass. (AP) — More than a dozen small towns in Massachusetts are sharing a total of $3 million in state grants to support local projects from improving wastewater treatment facilities to updating a 70-year-old fire station.

The Rural and Small Town Development Fund grants announced in Montague this week go to communities with fewer than 7,000 residents or a population density of less than 500 people per square mile.

The program was created in the economic development legislation signed by Gov. Charlie Baker last January.

Sixteen towns are getting grants ranging from $24,000 to $400,000.

Lincoln will use its $400,000 grant to create design and engineering plans to expand an existing wastewater treatment plant that services a shopping center and a 125-unit mixed income residential property.

Williamstown's $400,000 grant will be used to help with the redesign of a fire station built in 1950 so it meets national standards and improves response times.

The other communities that got grants were Avon, Cummington, Eastham, Edgartown, Erving, Hopedale, Montague, Orange, Princeton, Tisbury, Topsfield, Truro, Westport and Whately.

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