In an effort to continue helping not-for-profit organizations in town, the Guilford Board of Selectmen (BOS) recently approved four grant applications to be submitted to the state through the Neighborhood Assistance Act. If the money is awarded, organizations in town will receive funding for a variety of projects from building improvements to program assistance.

The Neighborhood Assistance Act is a federal grant program run through the State of Connecticut. According to the State of Connecticut Department of Revenue Services website, “The Connecticut Neighborhood Assistance Act (NAA) Tax Credit Program is designed to provide funding for municipal and tax exempt organizations by providing a corporation business tax credit for businesses who make cash contributions to these entities. Businesses can receive a credit of 60% of their approved contribution to certain programs (or 100 percent in the case of certain energy conservation programs) approved by the Department of Revenue Services. Any tax credit that is not taken in the income year in which the contribution was made may be carried back to the two immediately preceding income years (beginning with the earlier of such years).”

Each year organizations based in town come to the BOS to request that a grant proposal be submitted to the program. An organization can receive a maximum of $150,000 in a single year through the program and the applications are judged by the state.

First Selectman Matt Hoey said the process for applying to the program requires the applications be put forward by the town, but it isn’t Guilford-specific money that is awarded.

“We had several applications,” he said. “This is a standard annual process that needs to take place by the board to approve these, and these are federally administered grant programs through the state. It’s not Guilford taxpayer money but it is taxpayer money at some point.”

The organizations submitting include SARAH Foundation, Women & Family Life Center; and Lifelinx, which is seeking the maximum amount of $150,000 for rehabilitation of its Sober Living facility.

SARAH Foundation Executive Director Ken Alberti said the organization is seeking $100,000 for an HVAC system at its SARAH Tuxis facility which hosts its recreation day programs and respite services and an additional grant for $5,000 for SARAH Inc. to defray costs for lower income program participants.

“It’s a 11,000 square-foot facility that does not have HVAC systems so there are some free standing units in some rooms but there are many without and as you can imagine having really adequate HVAC systems would be important to running safe and comfortable programs,” he said of the Tuxis facility.

Women & Family Life Center Interim Director Catherine Bradshaw said they are seeking $21,500 to replace windows in the upper part of the building for energy conservation and to help cut down the organization’s overhead costs.

“Hopefully you have all been in our building and know it’s an older facility,” she said. “We actually had a very successful funding campaign that allowed us to renovate and fix some structural issues but the funding did not extend to the upper floor and so we have these windows that are very drafty and the heat rises and escapes out those windows. We spend $10,000 a year on utilities and that is the largest overhead cost that we have. We really want to try to bring that down and put it toward program needs.”

The BOS unanimously approved submitting all four applications to the program.