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EDC updates business assistance grant qualifiers; limits grants to 50% of project cost (up to $5,000 cap)
Summary
Eslam (Ehsan) and Danny proposed rubric changes for the EDC business assistance grants: add three pass/fail qualifiers (no grant in last two years, grant not to exceed 50% of project cost with cap historically $5,000, and no outstanding town tax liability). Committee will circulate highlighted changes and finalize a vote in January with awards to resume in February.
Eslam (referred to in the meeting as Eslam/Ehsan) and Danny presented proposed changes to the EDC's business assistance grants criteria on Dec. 2 and asked the committee for feedback before a January vote.
The three proposed pass/fail qualifiers are: 1) the applicant has not received a Westborough grant within the last two years (to broaden access), 2) grant funding should not exceed 50% of a project's total cost (the committee confirmed a historical grant cap of $5,000), and 3) applicants must have no outstanding tax liabilities to the Town. Presenters said these qualifiers would be applied before scoring so ineligible applicants are filtered early.
The proposed changes also include revisions to the scoring rubric (new scoring buckets for job creation and FTE-equivalent measures, downtown location preferences, long-term lease or purchase commitments, and business counseling participation). Committee members asked for the edits to be highlighted and circulated for review; the chair requested written feedback be sent to the chair (not 'reply-all') to avoid violating open-meeting rules. Aslam and Danny will incorporate comments and return with a revised rubric at the January meeting, with the committee planning to adopt the rubric then and resume grant awards in February.
