ADAMS -- Columbia Valley Housing for the Elderly will soon receive a new roof, thanks to a capital improvements grant the Housing Authority received from the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
The grant totals $332,728, a figure determined by the state using a process called formula funding, calculated according to the number of housing units at a given property.
Richard Hamblin, executive director of Adams Housing Authority, said eight bidders have submitted proposals to perform the work, with D.J. Wooliver and Sons Inc. Roofing, of Lanesborough, bidding lowest at $295,500.
"My guess is we're probably looking at a start date sometime in September and hopefully the new roof will be on before the snow flies," Hamblin said Wednesday.
Columbia Valley Housing for the Elderly, located at 4 Columbia St., comprises 64 housing units in three buildings and more than 70 residents, Hamblin said. The roofing project will take on all three residential buildings at the site, as well as a smaller office building.
The new grant represents the largest check DHCD has cut the Housing Authority in over five years. Columbia Valley Housing for the Elderly was built in 1971, and the roof has not been replaced since 1988.
"Part of the responsibility the state took on [in this and similar developments] was to make capital improvement funds available to state-aided housing," Hamblin said.
Hamblin is
"We try and fit these projects within the funding parameters. ... Hopefully the total amount will enable us to do the whole project," he said.
Hamblin said only Massachusetts, Hawaii, Connecticut and New York set aside resources for state-aided public housing, with the others relying on the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Of these states, Massa chusetts has pursued the program to the most effect.
"No other state has taken on the brick and mortar work of putting up these developments the way Massachusetts has," Hamblin said.
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