Randolph Gets $30,000 Grant
For Salisbury Square Planning

The town of Randolph has received a planning grant of $30,000 in community development funds from the state, it was announced this week.

The grant will continue work on the proposed Salisbury Square housing development at the site of the former Ethan Allen Furniture Co. plant at the end of Salisbury Street.

The grant would be used for pre-development work on roads, utilities, permitting and infrastructure including mapping underground utilities, studying the need for roads and the expansion of public utilities, and performing an architectural assessment and historic preservation report.

The money would be managed by the Randolph Area Community Development Corp. (RACDC), which owns the four-acre site. Unlike other RACDC housing projects, this one would focus on home-ownership, not rental units.

RACDC Executive Director Julie Iffland noted that RACDC is also also awaiting word on a "brownfields remediation grant from the state that would fund some of the cleanup costs, such as for removal of the relatively small amounts of asbestos and petroleum contaminated soils on the site.

"We hope to be able to begin this summer," she said.