Indian Head, MD – The Town of Indian Head, after years of decline leading to rows of unoccupied businesses on Route 210, finally has some good news to give its citizens.
Indian Head has been designated as a new sustainable community by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, one of four such designations bestowed by the state earlier this week.
“It’s a good thing,” said Mayor Brandon Paulin. “We applied a few months ago. The gathering of the paperwork took a while before we actually applied.
“The New Sustainable Community designation helps us out immensely in terms of grants we can now apply for and receive, especially from DHDC,” he added. “There were only four designations passed down by the state this year and we are really excited to be included.”
Consultant Gary Hodge, former Charles County commissioner and former director of the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland, helped the town with the application.
“He assisted us in certain aspects of it,” Paulin noted. “The Maryland Department of Planning was extremely helpful guiding us in the right direction and helping us to understand what an acceptable application would look like. We are really thankful for their help.”
He said the town can now apply for grants to help with community revitalization, demolition of unsightly buildings and said it doesn’t stop there.
“It’s not just those things, but there are neighborhood grants having to do with storm water run-off and things of that nature,” he said. “If there is a vacant house in a residential neighborhood area, those grants apply there too.
“It’s not just the community aspect,” Paulin added. “we definitely want to utilize through these grant programs, where if we start to do some good things it will have a trickle-down effect into the neighborhoods, too.
“We’re really excited about that,” he concluded.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com
