Main Street to have market study
Economic Development Council grant should help planning
By Karen Mann JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT

Town Planner Eric Smith is hoping to market Main Street and the entire town of Ashburnham to new business.

"What is wrong, why aren't we bringing business to Main Street," said Smith. "We want to attract business."

Smith and town officials will have the chance to answer those questions and hopefully solve the problem after a marketing plan for the Ashburnham Village Center Project is created.

Town officials received an $8,000 seed grant last week from the North Central Massachusetts Economic Development Council to help facilitate the marketing plan.

The marketing plan would be one piece of the puzzle, as everyone strives to bring business to Ashburnham, Smith said.

The Village Center District Rezoning Committee is currently studying the zoning of that area, to determine if different zoning or a different permitting process would help businesses set up in Ashburnham.

Smith said he wants the zoning study wrapped up by the fall, so if changes are necessary, they can be discussed at Town Meeting.

The next step, according to Smith, would be collecting marketing data and analysis. However, Ashburnham did not receive a state grant that officials applied for, so Smith is not sure what will happen with this work.

Smith also plans to survey residents of the town this summer, asking what businesses they would like to see in town.

"North Central Massachusetts is an undiscovered area," said Fitchburg State College President Robert Antonucci to the North Central Massachusetts Economic Development Council. "We want people to discover it."

The Ashburnham project was one of 16 applicants for a seed grant from the North Central Massachusetts Economic Development Council.

Winners were chosen based on the degree of regional economic impact, the level of quality jobs created, the level of matching investment from the private sector, and the timeline for impending results.

"Everyone is a winner here this morning," said Antonucci, before handing out the grants on Thursday, May 28.

Each of the five projects was awarded between $7,000 and $9,000, for a total of $40,000.

The seed grants give people the opportunity to create something new and something different, said Antonucci.

The other grants included: $8,000 to Ayer to conduct a transportation study in Depot Square, $7,000 to Gardner to hire a consultant to look at the redevelopment of the former S. Bent & Bros. furniture factory complex, $8,000 for Lancaster to study the reuse of the former landfill, and in Royalston $9,000 will be used to for site work at The Village School.

"This is very exciting for us. We will hire millers to saw the logs right there on site to use to build the school," said Rise Richardson, director of the new school. Richardson added that The Village School would be the only independent, non-parochial school between Gardner and Greenfield.

After the grants were handed out, Robert Pontbriand, the director of Economic Development and Government Affairs for the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation, said they hope to award more grants in the future.

The $40,000 for these grants came out of the funding the Development Corporation receives from state appropriations, which was a decision made by the group.

Pontbriand said there is a lot of interest in the 26 surrounding communities to apply for a grant.

"A lot of communities and projects weren't ready to apply," said Pontbriand.