If you attended any of last year's paving-focused budget meetings, you likely heard that residents on Hampden Road are eager for their street to be repaved. With that in mind, Stafford is seeking a STEAP grant to help pay for the extensive project.
STEAP, aka the Small Town Economic Assistant Program, "funds economic development, community conservation and quality-of-life capital projects for localities that are ineligible to receive Urban Action (CGS Section 4-66c) bonds." The 2025 STEAP program has $30,000,000 to give away. Each municipality can receive $1 million, up from $500,000 in the past. If Stafford were to win the grant, work likely would not commence until 2026.
Devin Cowperthwaite, Director of the Department of Public Works, has made the rounds at board meetings, filling everyone in on the details and getting the appropriate approvals when necessary. At the February 6, 2025, Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, he explained that the grant would cover the work needed from Green Acres to Spencer Road East. Some road realignment, drainage work, and minor elevation changes are needed. Cowperthwaite says that he hopes his department might be able to make any grant funds stretch to pave down to Diamond Ledge, though that would require many stars to align.
Stafford received a $209,000 STEAP grant to repave the Community Center and Kealy Field parking lots. Cowperthwaite says that Old Springfield Road will take priority this paving season but that his crew will work on those more straightforward projects as they can.
