By Jeff Gilbride/Daily News staff
Wed Jan 09, 2008, 01:05 AM EST
Daily News Tribune
WALTHAM

The Community Preservation Committee last night gave its blessing to $1.8 million worth of projects, ranging from $50,000 to expand the Charles River Museum of Industry to a $356,000 overhaul of Stonehurst, the Robert Treat Paine Estate.

The committee reviewed 15 requests for money from the city's Community Preservation Act fund. Money has been accumulating through property tax surcharges and matching state grants since city voters approved the act in November 2005.

The recommendations will now go before the City Council, which can either vote to accept the total price tags or reduce the amounts.

The committee voted to recommend two amounts to Ann Clifford, curator for Stonehurst, including a request for $111,500 for renovations to an elevator and bathroom upgrades and a separate request for $245,000 for exterior restorations.

The committee also voted to recommend $129,000 for the School Department to preserve Whittemore School, $100,000 a year for a total of four years to be put toward renovating Wellington House, a historic house on Trapelo Road, and $50,000 to the Charles River Museum of Industry.

Ward Two City Councilor Edmund Tarallo requested and received $392,000 to help the city purchase land surrounding Hardy Pond that could be developed.

City Clerk Russ Malone asked for $200,000 to hire an archivist to help scan and digitally store aging birth, death, and marriage records and make upgrades to the vault where hard copies are kept.

The committee endorsed Ward 9 Councilor Robert Logan's request for $284,560 to preserve land on Crescent Street. The committee gave its OK for the Waltham Housing Authority's request for $300,000 to preserve and support a housing project on Orange Street.

The committee also voted to recommend $25,000 to be used to form a committee and hire consultants to determine a future use of the Woerd Avenue landfill, which needs to be capped in the near future.

Several other applications were put on hold or tabled. Committee members said they could not recommend funding without more information or because certain permits or other vital information was not up to date.

One application was denied.

A proposal from Waltham Housing Director Janet Barry for $300,000 for the Down-payment Assistance Program, for first-time homebuyers, was denied because funding for the program was already allocated by the federal government, committee members said.

An application from the Waltham Alliance to Create Housing for $360,000 toward an affordable housing project at the former Beacon Valve Co. on Jackson Street was tabled last night because the permit process for the project has not been completed.

Last month, Steve Laferriere, director of housing development, said the nonprofit is in the process of purchasing the deserted factory to convert the property into six affordable two-bedroom townhouses.

The committee said it will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, March 18, at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com.