Barre to help expand loan program for property owners

BARRE — City councilors will partner with the Central Vermont Community Land Trust to extend and expand a revolving loan fund that assists low- and moderate-income central Vermonters making needed property improvements.
First funded in 2006 with a $375,000 grant from the Vermont Community Development Program, the land trust’s Green Mountain Loan Fund was awarded a second grant for just over $1 million in 2008. That money is about to run out, according to land trust Executive Director Eileen Peltier, who asked Barre City Council members to replace Northfield as the lead applicant for a soon-to-be-submitted $740,000 community development grant application.
If the two-year grant request is approved, Peltier said it would replenish and expand a revolving loan fund that has helped finance roughly $1 million in home improvements in Washington, Orange and Lamoille counties since its inception.
Those improvements range from weatherization and lead abatement to fixing failed septic systems and correcting code violations, said Peltier. She said the latest grant application would allow the program to continue, with a new twist, through 2014.

Read the full story by David Delcore in the Times Argus >>