NORTH BRANFORD – The town received a $290,000 windfall last week, in the form of a state grant to help upgrade court playing surfaces at Memorial Park.

While the bulk of the state award is earmarked for the park’s courts, an opportunity may be found to also address a bit of the town/private field upgrade deal in discussions; even if only to help fix Memorial Park’s ball field. The field is one of as many as seven fields being considered for upgrades as part of a recent shared-use proposal brought to the town by Connecticut Sportsplex of North Branford.

But first and foremost, the courts will be addressed.

“We wrote the application some time ago, focused on the tennis courts and basketball courts,” Town Manager Michael Paulhus told Zip06. “Obviously there is also a field there, so anything is possible.”

Paulhus said preliminary discussions and research into other available town bonding funds are part of the current research being undertaken as part of the process involved in determining what, if any, money will be available to allow the town to go along with the Sportsplex offer. The town is considering a deal from CT Sportsplex which could lead to turf infield upgrades for as many as six town baseball/softball fields and also renovating the grass and clay field at NBHS. See past stories on the proposal at www.zip06.com/northbranford

In the meantime, things will begin gearing up to allow the town to get underway with putting the new state grant toward replacing those well-used tennis court and basketball court surfaces at Memorial Park.

“We’re looking at the budget to get a sense of what the scope is, and hopefully working to put documents together this fall into winter,” said Paulhus. “Optimistically, we could put out a bid package for winter so it could become a spring-type project; (but) it would have an impact on schools and teams, so we’ve got to look at that first and coordinate and notify folks.”

The $290,000 grant arrived as one of 12 Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grants announced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Oct. 6. Paulhus said the funding is “great news” for North Branford.

“It’s very helpful to the community; that’s why you go after these. It’s great news and I thank our elected officials and the Town Council for supporting it, and Representative Candelora and Senator Kennedy for pushing it at the state level,” said Paulhus.

Speaking of grants, Paulhus noted North Branford is now pursuing another state grant which could assist with costs for demolition and clean-up of old buildings on the town center property (see the story at http://bit.ly/1LDFz6B ).

State Rep. Vincent Candelora (R-86) hailed the news of the $290,000 grant last week; noting in a press release it will assist with the renovation of five existing tennis courts and two basketball courts at the park, located on the North Branford Intermediate School/North Branford High School campus. The upgrade will bring all-weather, multi-purpose courts which Rep. Candelora said will be “essential” to the success of NBHS Tennis teams, while also giving community members another place to “engage and stay active.”

“These courts are heavily used by the schools, club sports and residents,” Rep. Candelora said. “I’m pleased to have advocated for this grant because without it, it would be difficult for our town to make necessary repairs during this tough economic time. I commend the Town Council’s efforts on obtaining this grant.”

In a separate press release, Gov. Malloy said the North Branford grant was given during the third installment of several rounds of grants this year.

“By partnering with our smaller communities, our state can assist towns with infrastructure projects that will help them grow, remain competitive, attract businesses, and bring added value to residents for years to come,” said Gov. Malloy. “These STEAP grants allow us to get funding directly to municipalities to complete projects that make Connecticut a better place to work and live.”