Beverly City Council approves three grants totaling nearly $1.54 million at September meeting

BEVERLY — September 8, 2020 — Beverly City Council unanimously approved three federal and state grants totaling roughly $1.54 million at its September 8 remote meeting. The largest award, a $1,211,631 National Urban Search and Rescue Response System grant from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, will fund continued operations at the Mass Task Force 1 site in Beverly, with Grant Director Catherine Barrett crediting team leader Mark Foster. A $62,535 Green Communities grant from the state Department of Energy Resources will fund HVAC improvements at Cove Elementary School. The council also accepted a late-filed $280,500 CARES Act Community Development Block Grant — with Councilor Joseph Rotundo recusing himself as a potential applicant — that will distribute individual awards of up to $10,000 to micro-enterprises with five or fewer employees through a lottery administered by Mass Growth Capital Corporation, with an application deadline of approximately September 25. The council separately approved a $150,000 transfer from the city's reserve-for-unforeseen account to fund demolition of the long-blighted structure at 11 Child Street, after a $195,000 appropriation passed in March lapsed at the fiscal year's end when the original contractor could not perform.