Middleburg tightens infrastructure grant definition, caps awards and requires pre-approval training

Middleburg — The Middleburg Town Council adopted a resolution amending the town's infrastructure grants policy to clarify what constitutes an infrastructure project and to limit the scale and frequency of awards.

Staff proposed narrowing the policy so a qualifying infrastructure item must be a permanent component of a building or facility owned or leased by the applicant, used for the applicant's primary operations, and have a long life cycle. The revision excludes electronics or items with short life cycles and adds that grants may not be awarded for projects already initiated or completed.

The policy retains a limit of no more than three grant awards to an organization within any 10-year period and an annual cap of $10,000 per applicant; staff noted the maximum an organization could receive in a 10-year span would be $30,000 if it received three full awards. Rhonda North (town clerk) presented the recommended language and noted staff would update application guidance to match the revised policy.

Peter (council member) moved adoption of the resolution; the motion carried on a voice vote with all council members present voting in favor. Councillors discussed logistics for notifying previous applicants and for upcoming applicant training.

Miss McIntyre (grant program staff) is planning a July training session for applicants; staff said they had delayed scheduling the session until after any policy amendments so the training could reflect the updated rules. The council directed staff to notify past applicants and to publish training details once scheduled.

The change narrows eligibility criteria and aims to prioritize long-lived facility improvements over consumable or easily replaced items.