Stoughton

called Chapter 23L,” McCarthy adds. (Chapter 23L is a Massachusetts state program used to finance services, infrastructure, and facilities within a defined geographical area, such as parks, roads, recreational facilities, utilities, and water and sanitary facilities,wherein local prop- erty owners self-tax their own real estate in order to fund the improvements.The prototype was first used in NewYork in 1961, to finance street and drain construction.) “Sometimes you have to be a little bit creative when it comes to the financing mechanisms,” she says. Another one of McCarthy’s projects, based on the town’s Master Plan, is downtown redevelop- ment. “When I was hired two and a half years ago, I was told that downtown was one of the areas that the town wanted to concentrate on revitaliz- ing,” she says.“I formed a non-profit group called the Friends of Stoughton Center.We have close to 140 members. It’s made up, not just of busi- ness people, but also of residents and anybody that has an interest in revitalizing the downtown. They have several committees; for example, a beautification committee that’s just interested in transforming the look of the downtown.They put up planters on the light poles and at ground level. They just started purchasing furniture for areas STOUGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS where we can make it a little more welcoming for people to come and sit down.They also have a social media committee, so people can get infor- mation about what’s happening in downtown and they’re concentrating on trying to have events to bring people downtown.We also have groups that concentrate on business relations and events.” “I’m going to be applying for a Community De- velopment Block Grant in order to have a sign and façade program downtown to increase the aes- thetics of the area,” she adds.“I also recently got a grant from one of the regional planning agencies called the Metropolitan Area Planning Council to do a parking management plan.And a group called The Friends of the State Theater has been trying to raise money to renovate a theater in the downtown area,which if successful will be an an- chor to the downtown. I think it would spur a lot more development and more restaurants popping up. So that’s something in the works.” Noreen O’Toole is Stoughton’s Town Planner. She talks about some of the town’s sustainable We’re not just talking about it. We’re actually taking the plans that the commu- nity has been working on and finding ways to work with our regional planning agencies and state agencies to try and make these things actually happen. PAMELA MCCARTHY DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT