NORTHAMPTON — Million-dollar grants for Hilltown Community Development Corp.’s Mobile Market and a new highway garage in Goshen are included in the budget bill approved Wednesday by the U.S. House.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, announced funding totaling more than $21 million for numerous community projects throughout the state’s 2nd Congressional District.

The legislation will be considered by the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden this week, McGovern said. Topping the money list in Hampshire and Franklin counties is Deerfield, which will receive $4 million for designs and renovation of the 1888 Building in South Deerfield.

The plan is to turn the 135-year-old, three-story brick former grammar school into Deerfield’s Town Hall and the “anchor” of its proposed campus, a project intended to improve the walkability and accessibility for all residents around the common, Tilton Library, the Congregational Church and the 1888 Building.

Food hub

Hilltown CDC, which has been slowly growing its food distribution efforts, will receive $1 million, allowing it to move into a larger space with a commercial kitchen, Executive Director Dave Christopolis said.

Beginning a few years ago with a farmers market and pop-up mobile markets, the organization has most recently been renting the store at Worthington’s Sawyer Farm, where it sells meat, dairy and vegetables it buys from some 35 area farmers. During the growing season, the CDC makes food deliveries as well.

The market has been outgrowing the space at the store, and doesn’t have many options to expand, Christopolis said.

“This will allow us to talk to property owners,” he said.

The need is approximately 2,000 square feet, and the money will most likely be put toward a long-term lease.

“We’ve got a couple of sites in mind,” Christopolis said. “It would be ideal to bring an old building back on line.”

The grant also will enable the CDC to work with local producers on product development, value-added products, and marketing, according to McGovern’s office.

Home for heavy equipment

Goshen, which also is in line for a million-dollar grant, has been searching for a way to update its highway garage for many years, Select Board Chair Angela Otis said Thursday. A year ago — the day after a 30-inch snowstorm, she said — McGovern and his staff visited town and spoke with her and Town Administrator Dawn Scaparotti.

They raised the issue of the highway garage, a poorly heated 1950s concrete block building with two bays big enough to hold only two of the department’s 12 vehicles, so highway crews have to work on most of the equipment out in the rain and snow. In addition, the salt and sand shed is too small.

A few years ago, Otis said, voters approved $200,000 for a feasibility study, and the town has some money put away in a capital stabilization account.

McGovern was sympathetic, she said.

“He really did understand the conundrum we were in,” she said. “This earmark is really going to go a long way in easing the tax burden.”

Last year, voters approved the purchase of additional acreage around the garage to give the town flexibility in siting a new structure.

“We’re ready to move forward,” Otis said.

Victorian Gothic

Before it closed due to the pandemic in March 2020, Deerfield’s 1888 Building housed the South County Senior Center. The Victorian Gothic building has been shuttered since the following year, when it was found to contain asbestos and other contaminants.

With the $4 million grant, the town intends to go out to bid again for an architect — Select Board Chair Carolyn Shores Ness said the town’s previous architect wasn’t “responding to what we wanted” — to get a “concrete number” on the cost of the project. A request for proposals is expected to be launched in April and a deadline will be set for early May.

“We want a more responsible design; we want something that’s really practical and meets the needs of our community and something that preserves the building,” Shores Ness said.

“We’ll have a definitive price and then we’ll move forward on the definitive price.”

The town estimates the $4 million will cover a good chunk of the project, and Community Preservation Act (CPA) could help fund the rest, according to Shores Ness.

Among the other funding awards in the budget is $500,000 for the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Water and Energy Technology Center (WET Center).

The grant will help UMass to complete a rebuild of the WET Center, known across the Northeast for its work on measurement and control of drinking water contaminants, such as per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS).

And Ashfield’s Double Edge Theatre has also received $1 million for the construction of a new community center focusing on access and climate migration.

“I feel like we are part of a movement quietly happening in Ashfield. We see the intersection of arts/culture and civic responsibility. We are dealing with climate migration, and Congress is recognizing that, which is being reflected in these funds,” said Adam Bright, producing executive director of Double Edge.

The community center will feature art-making areas open to the public, with space for drawing, puppet-making and teaching. One-third of the building will be managed by the indigenous group No Loose Braids, led by members of the Nipmuc tribe.

The building will be carbon net-zero and ADA accessible, representing a significant upgrade from their current space, which is a converted barn.

Double Edge has completed initial designs and will be working toward construction drawings and continued fundraising in the near future. They anticipate construction to commence within the year.

Staff writers Chris Larabee and Bella Levavi contributed to this report.