PORTLAND — Robert Mehigan has already seen some payoff from the “Healthy Living, Healthy City” program that Portland is finishing in his East Bayside neighborhood.

Madison Street, in front of his home, was repaved last summer and the brick sidewalk outside his front door was rebuilt. Now, he’s considering an offer that would bring a benefit of the program into his basement.

Additional Photos

Dan McPherson, left, code enforcement officer for Portland, and Ronda Jones, right, a housing rehabilitation specialist, talk with East Bayside resident Robert Mehigan about increasing the energy efficiency of his home. The “Healthy Living, Healthy City” program helps finance such improvements. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

City officials talked to Mehigan this week about their offer to have inspectors check out the house he has owned for about a dozen years. They want to offer tips on saving energy and making other improvements.

“I’m interested in getting a sump pump,” said Mehigan, because it could offer protection for his investment in a new furnace, which could be vulnerable to heavy flooding. The city program can help finance improvements for many residents, depending on their income.

That kind of focus on individuals is a hallmark of the program, which Portland began more than 18 months ago.

The idea is to put a major improvement effort into one neighborhood for two years, fixing up public spaces, tackling problems that are often far down on the city’s list of priorities, and going door-to-door to make people aware of low-interest funding that could make more affordable some home improvements that have the side benefit of beautifying the neighborhood.

The program is funded with some of the money that flows into Portland every year under the federal Community Development Block Grant program.

The city hopes to move the program to Libbytown in July, but that depends on whether Congress continues to fund the block grants in the coming year, said Penny Littell, Portland’s planning director.

East Bayside’s “Healthy Living, Healthy City” program was started with $116,000 in grant funding, Littell said.

The city’s actual investment in the area since July 2009 has probably been three times that amount, Littell said, because the amount funded by the grant program only reflected some of the administrative salaries devoted to the program, not costs such as the value of the work by public works employees and trees that were planted in public areas.

Tammy Munson, Portland’s director of inspection services, said the program is exciting for her workers because it lets them offer help and advice that they normally don’t provide when looking in commercial buildings for code violations.

For instance, inspectors helped Christine Haskell of Anderson Street identify places in her basement where cold air was pouring in.

Haskell, whose home was built in 1875, said the inspectors suggested places where insulation would help keep her home warmer in the winter. They also identified plumbing that had been done incorrectly, she said, and pointed out a safety problem with the steps into her basement, which she’s eager to fix because she has a young child.

Haskell said she has applied for a loan through a city program that could provide her with as much as $15,000 at 3 percent interest or less.

Littell said the city runs a revolving loan fund that now has a balance of more than $1 million, and can offer emergency loans to pay for repairs if inspections show something that poses an imminent threat to health or safety.

“There’s nowhere else I’m going to get that kind of money for that low of a rate,” Haskell said.

Once the loan is approved, Haskell said, she will be able to do the repairs “and not have it break the bank, because I can stretch the payments out.”

Haskell said she hopes other homeowners on her street will take advantage of the program because house repairs “are a whole neighborhood quality-of-life thing.”

Littell said the East Bayside program will end in June, but there are still some projects ahead. In May, city crews will bring in loads of loam, mulch and plants for residents to put on their own properties or use to beautify public space.

As a side benefit, she said, it will encourage residents to get out of their houses after a long winter and reconnect with neighbors.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

Related Stories