Randolph Receives Big Grant, Loan
To Restore Elementary School

This was a "bullish week" for the renovation project that would put DuBois & King in the former elementary school, said chief consultant Al Moulton yesterday.

During the week, Randolph received official word from two agencies providing a total of $2.25 million for the project. It also received assurances that $1 million set aside by the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) has not been affected by the Sept. 11 disaster and its aftermath.

Still, there’s another $750,000 to be raised before the Town, Dubois & King, and Vermont Technical College can say "It’s a go," said Moulton.

"I feel better now than I have in a long while," he said yesterday from his home in Florida. "I was worried about the EDA money. But it’s still there." (Formal application has to be made for it, however.)

The new funding sources received this week were the Community Development Block Grant program, which earmarked its second $750,000 grant to the project; and the Vermont Economic Development Authority, which kicked in a low-interest loan of $1.5 million.

The contribution form the CDBG resulted from the heroic work over many months by Jeff Staudinger, another consultant on the project. Randolph withdrew two applications on the way to its final success. "It was a lot of work," admitted Staudinger, calling the CDBG funding programs "one of the tougher ones" to apply for.

That puts assured funding at about 88% of the final need of $6.4 million, Moulton said. He said he will hold immediate planning sessions to plot how to get the remaining money. He was confident of success by the end of 2001, he said.

"We’re too close now to drop this thing," he declared. "We can see the finish line right around the corner."

Staudinger, also, predicted that the "momentum" generated by this week’s successes will free up enough funding to cap off the project.

Selectboard Chair Carolyn Carolyn Tonelli this week gave particular credit to Gov. Dean and Development Secretary Molly Lambert for setting aside two CDBG grants for the Randolph project.

One will help Vermont Technical College purchase the existing DuBois & King campus for a small-business incubator. The other will help with the expensive renovation of the village school.

The project is touted by both state and town officials because it will bring added business to the downtown area, renovate a historic building, provide expansion space in town for an important employer, help with VTC’s space shortage, and lead to the establishment of new small businesses on Route 66.

A spokesman at DuBois & King also commented at the latest success in the CDBG grant program. "We’re very excited," said Rick Goodall, speaking for D&K President Bill Baumann.

By M. D. Drysdale