Redev Report, Elevator Expiration, ABCs Of CDBG: A Fair Haven Roundup

by Allan Appel

Mary Ann Moran and Susan Hackett: Ready. Set. CMT!

Susan Hackett, a serious walker, betook herself the two-plus miles Thursday from her condo by the Q River in Fair Haven downtown to the Gateway college campus to attend her art history course — free if you’re a senior.

Then she timed her return, also on foot, the two miles back to attend an equally important session, to catch up on local developments and to decide on a slew of items in her capacity as a regular voting member of the Fair Haven Community Management Team (FHCMT).

An active woman, Hackett is also one of the volunteer leaders of an English language conversation group that meets at the local branch library where the FHCMT meeting was convened.

The regular FHCMT monthly gathering drew 25 people in person in the downstairs community room and an equal number on Zoom.

Here’s a roundup of some highlights:

The historic preservation and repurposing of the Strong School, the proud pile of bricks built in 1916 and the elementary school of Valentine Giamatti, dad of Yale President (deceased) Bart Giammati, and grandad of actor Paul Giammati (!) on Grand Avenue at the eastern gateway to Fair Haven . . . finally has the finish line in sight. So reported Karmen Cheung of the Philadelphia-based housing developer Pennrose LLC, which received final City Plan Commission approval for the $25 million project in 2023.

Required approvals are in hand, Cheung said, from both the State Office of Historic Preservation and the National Park Service (as the building is in an historic district). Construction-ready drawings are now under review with City Plan, and if all goes well, the proverbial shovel should be in the ground this summer.

All the 58 new LGBTQ-friendly units are slated to be affordable, with income qualifications, and that’s why the assembly of the financing has taken even longer than anticipated. With a year-and-a-half construction schedule, and with luck, Ward 14 Alder Sarah Miller — who has been one of the primary shepherds of the project — said a huge ribbon cutting party may well take place early in 2028.

Speaking of historic preservation, the elevator at the Fair Haven Branch library has gone kaput. The building, erected in 1917, is one of the handful of surviving libraries in the area built at the largesse of steel magnate/robber baron/philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The elevator, not nearly as historic as the building, was installed around 1980, reported City Librarian Maria Bernhey, who was on hand to help officially to introduce Graciela Rivera, the new Fair Haven branch librarian.

“The elevator was shut off for routine inspection,” she reported, “and it didn’t come back on again.” It turns out that the replacement parts needed are no longer being manufactured! The library is working with the engineers to find a solution and in the meantime workarounds are available for library patrons who can’t use the stairs.

Hackett and the other attendees then turned their attention for the balance of the meeting to hear presentations of projects that local nonprofits are hoping to help fund through state/federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG).

The decisions on how to spend the federal money given to the city through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is in the hands of the Board of Alders, who will vote project by project in the coming weeks.

However, applying nonprofits are urged to demonstrate local community support for their work in the form of letters of approval from local groups like the management teams. The Fair Haveners heard from four applicants in presentations:

• The Mary Wade Home is requesting $88,000 to support replacement of the old flooring over a 22,000 square-foot section of their nursing home facility. In an additional CDBG grant application, the anchoring Fair Haven institution is requesting $25,000 in partial salary support for the drivers of their vans. The vans offer free rides — not only for medical purposes but, for example, on the weekends, when seniors, who can’t navigate regular city buses, need to get about to visit friends or to go to dinner. The rides are available to all area residents, not only those living at or affiliated with the Mary Wade Home, and the group has a fleet of eight vans but not all are in use (although demand is there) for want of drivers.

• Centro San Jose is requesting $40,000 to re-instsate the group’s youth facilitator who also functions as coach of the basketball team and organizer, along with the two other staffers, of the food pantry, diaper bank, after-school and other programs. With such a small staff, of three with return of the facilitator, this grant will also, in effect, help to stabilize this organization that has long been a presence on Grand Avenue.

• reSet+Collab is a statewide business incubator and accelerator. That is, it offers one-on-one coaching, small grants, the filling out of applications, Spanish language and Arabic translation services, data, and the whole range of services you need to help launch or expand small business, mainly for new minority entrepreneurs. The request is for $70,000 to support staff. When one member of the audience asked if the group helps and welcomes “undocumented neighbors” to participate in the programs, the answer was a resounding Yes.

• The Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services, part of BHcare, was on hand requesting support for two grant applications. The first, $72,000, is to support the group’s staff who work with survivors of domestic violence to make safety plans, at the center of which is often the need for new housing. One third of domestic violence survivors, the presenter reported, end up homeless. A second application for $74,000 would support the group’s Family Justice Center, a one-stop shop at the group’s offices on Temple Street where social workers, attorneys, the police, and so forth are all there so a person, in crisis and seeking shelter and help, has to tell her story only once. While the Umbrella Center serves about 19 towns in the area, New Haveners constitute the largest cohort of participants.

And here’s a disturbing factoid for you football fans: The single busiest day in the year for this domestic violence services group, according to the presenter, is the day after the Super Bowl!

While ballots for or against support were not formally cast by Hackett and the other FHCMT members present — a voting member must have been in attendance for at least five of the previous 12 meetings and the group now votes such items through an online system over the weekend — the group’s co-chair, Lee Cruz, said the presenting groups historically have received support from FHCMT.