ATHOL – A community meeting will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 8, to discuss the third and final phase of the Canal and South Neighborhood Improvement Plan.

The Planning Department will be seeking a Community Development Block Grant to fund the project, which includes work on South Street between Freedom and Tunnel streets. The meeting takes place at the Athol Senior Center in Lord Pond Plaza and includes an update on Phase 1, which includes Canal and Lumber streets, where construction got underway last year, as well as a review of the grant award for Phase 2 for Freedom and South streets between Jones and Freedom.

At the Selectboard meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21, Planning and Development Director Eric Smith sought the board’s support to use monies from the town’s Housing Rehab Loan Repayment Fund to pay for preliminary engineering and design services for Phase 3 of the plan. Those services would be provided by the Bedford, New Hampshire-based engineering firm of Wright-Pierce.

Smith told the board that the $25,000 he was requesting would “eventually result in a 100% design plan and a construction budget. It also includes a public input design component, which we will use to follow up with residents and property owners.”

Smith said he plans call for Wright-Pierce to complete the preliminary plan in time to include it in the town’s FY25 Community Development Block Grant application, the deadline for which is April 14. At Smith’s request, the board approved a motion to support the CDBG application and the use of the loan repayment fund to pay for preliminary design and engineering.

Smith told the Athol Daily News that Phase 3, the improvement of South Street between Freedom and Tunnel, received the support of CDBG Advisory Committee earlier this month. Work on Phase 1 began last year, with completion slated for later this year. Work on Phase 2 will get underway in late summer or early fall.

“As we wanted to think of another project to work on,” said Smith, “we thought of this area, South Street between Freedom and Tunnel, to kind of close out the work around that neighborhood, kind of the area behind Lord Pond Plaza. The greening of Lord Pond Plaza project, that will also have construction getting started this year; it’s actually going out to bid in the next week or two.”

Phase 1 is supported by a $1.3 million Community Development Block Grant, Phase 2 was awarded a CDBG funding in the amount of $950,000. The most the town can seek this year in funding for Phase 3 is $850,000.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.