The Main Street Now 2023 conference will be held in Boston, Massachusetts from March 27 – 29! Register today and join fellow commercial district revitalization leaders from across the country for three days of education sessions, special events, mobile workshops, and opportunities to explore the host city, including 20 Main Street neighborhoods. Whether you come from an urban business district, small rural downtown, or somewhere in between, the Main Street Now Conference offers solutions to common problems and new techniques to help your community thrive.
Author: Mendes, Randi
UConn TAB Spring Webinar Series
Join UConn TAB for our Spring Webinar series. Links to register for the webinars as well as more information will be updated continuously.
Register for the webinars:
February 22nd – Communicating Risk in Brownfields Webinar: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uconn-tab-webinar-risk-communication-tickets-522992613987
March 1st – Leveraging EJ Funds Webinar: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uconn-tab-webinar-citizen-lab-community-engagement-platform-tickets-522999203697
March 22nd – Citizen’s Lab Platform Webinar: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uconn-tab-webinar-citizen-lab-community-engagement-platform-tickets-522999203697
April 26th – Working with a Developer Webinar: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/working-with-and-finding-developers-for-brownfield-redevelopment-tickets-590317434337
UConn TAB Spring 2023 Municipal Assistance Program
UConn TAB is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2023 Municipal Assistance Program (MAP). The MAP is open to all New England communities at no cost to the applicant.
Spring RFP
- Dates: January – May
- Services Provided: Technical Support on Brownfields Redevelopment including brownfields inventories, summaries of environmental records, site reuse assessments, sampling plans, and community engagement materials
- Applications deadline: December 14th
- Application Link: https://tab.program.uconn.edu/request-for-proposals-spring-2023/
The proposals will be supported through the University of Connecticut Spring 2023 UConn Brownfield Redevelopment course. If you have any questions before applying, please reach out to us at uconn-tab@uconn.edu
EJSCREEN Short Course
Learn how to take your grants to the next level by taking our EJSCREEN short course. This course is designed to be completed in 4 to 6 hours. You can stop and return to the course at any time. You must complete the course within 3 weeks in order to receive a certificate of completion.
Register for the short course: https://uconn.geniussis.com/Registration.aspx?AffiliateID=4D9KE1
EPA Grant Proposal Review
The UConn TAB team will provide reviews for the upcoming EPA assessment, cleanup, multipurpose, and revolving loan fund grant cycle. We provide reviews of the narrative and application package, offering two rounds of review upon time availability.
Deadlines for submission will be announced upon EPA grant solicitation release.
1st round of review(Deadline: Oct. 25th): It consists of comments on how the narrative addresses EPA’s guidelines, suggestions on how to address these comments, and resources to identify data. Reviews will be provided in a written format, as an annotated document of your submitted text. You may also schedule a follow-up call with the team member to walk you through the comments.
2nd round or review(Deadline: Nov. 8th): After the feedback of the 1st round of review is addressed, the 2nd round will provide additional feedback to fine-tune the narrative and provide feedback on the complete application package.
MARC Grant Prep Bootcamps
We know that preparing EPA grants can be difficult! So this year we are offering 2 MARC Grant Bootcamps. During these bootcamps, municipalities will work with our team to increase their chances of success.
Bootcamp 1: October 14th @ UConn Storrs Campus
Bootcamp 2: October 21st @ Department of Environmental Services Concord, NH
EPA Region 1 MARC Grant Webinars
The FY23 Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, RLF, and Cleanup Grant Guidelines are now available in www.grants.gov and on the OBLR MARC Grant Application Resources webpage along with other General Program Resources. The application submission deadline is November 22, 2022. Prospective applicants can also access the information through the Brownfields Newsroom and Solicitations for Brownfield Grants pages.
Two Regional Application Outreach sessions are planned for this year. Specific times for the regional meetings will be announced soon.
- Wednesday October 5, 2022 in person meeting at the Regional Lab in Chelmsford, MA
- 11 Technology Drive, North Chelmsford, MA
- 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST
- In order to enter the Chelmsford Lab, you must preregister and let us know your name and anyone else in your group. Please email R1Brownfields@epa.gov with this information.
- Thursday October 6, 2022 virtual Teams meeting
- 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST via Teams link (Link to join will be sent out later through R1Brownfields@epa.gov).
- Multiple presentations will be taking place throughout the day. A more specific schedule will be confirmed soon.
EPA National MARC Grant Webinars
The FY23 Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, RLF, and Cleanup Grant Guidelines are now available in www.grants.gov and on the OBLR MARC Grant Application Resources webpage along with other General Program Resources. The application submission deadline is November 22, 2022. Prospective applicants can also access the information through the Brownfields Newsroom and Solicitations for Brownfield Grants pages.
Webinar 1: FY23 EPA MARC Grant Open Solicitation
Date: September 29th
Time: 2 PM EST
This webinar will discuss the FY 2023 guidelines for entities applying for:
- Multipurpose Grant funding
- Community-wide Assessment Grant funding
- Assessment Coalition Grant funding
- Community-wide Assessment Grants for States and Tribes funding
Link to join: https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1601605033#success
Webinar 2: FY23 Cleanup Grant Guidance
Date: October 4th
Time: 2 PM EST
Link to join: https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1615031487#success
Webinar 3: FY23 RLF Grant Guidance
Date: October 6th
Time: 2 PM EST
Link to join: https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1607942977#success
UConn TAB Hosts Community Event in Claremont, NH
On September 29th, UConn TAB helped their Summer MAP recipient, the Town of Claremont, with a public workshop on . During the workshop, UConn TAB, gave a presentation that briefly gave background information on brownfields and a site reuse assessment for the Sugar River Land sites of interest. The Summer MAP project worked with UConn TAB student intern Aaron Hinze to investigate and determine possible reuse options based on zoning, land restrictions, community input, and more. The initial results of this investigation were shown via digital renderings. Following the presentation of these renderings, UConn TAB led a group discussion wherein community members were asked specific questions regarding how these renderings fit the needs and priorities of the Town. Ideas were shared on sticky notes and then a representative from each group shared their thoughts out loud. These ideas were recorded and documented in the final report UConn TAB will be sending to the Town of Claremont. We hope that this report helps articulate the wants of Claremont for these sites and provides guidance for future reuse and redevelopment of the site.
Fall 2022 MAP Recipients
We had a lot of interest in our Fall Municipal Assistance Program. We are happy to report that we have accepted and will be helping 10 communities. These projects represent communities in CT, MA, VT and RI and support all types of EPA MARC Grants