by Geoff Fox
Kathryn Gratton has worked with the Town of Hancock for the last couple years under Maryland Rural Development Corporation as the circuit rider, managing grants for the town.
Since the corporation downsized and is putting more focus toward the Eastern Shore, Gratton said it leaves a hole in the area.
Gratton has had her own personal grant writing consulting business for a number of years and wanted to put that on the town’s radar as an opportunity.
Under the original program, Hancock partnered with Williamsport to use Gratton’s services. She has since rolled into being a part-time staff member as grant writer.
Gratton positioned the opportunity for the town to hire her as a third-party consultant, part-time staff member working remotely, or wherever the town wanted her to start.
Over the years, Gratton helped the town obtain grants for the parks such as Project Open Space, working on police protection grants, and CDBG grants.
“That’s not just the application phase, that was also staying up on the reporting and also the reimbursements that you guys got from the grants to file after the fact to get the money back,” she said.
In total, those grants were around $200,000.
Pricing for Gratton’s services ranged from $250 a month to $2,000 a month.
Town Manager Michael Faith said she was originally between $250 and $500 a month.
The hours Gratton was working in Hancock fluctuated depending on how her 40 hours were broken up between Hancock and Williamsport, where it could be 30 in Williamsport and only 10 in Hancock.
Faith said there were times she didn’t even have 10 in Hancock and others more than 10.
In her own personal business, Gratton said she’s had clients buy a bulk of hours and then draw from that throughout the agreement because there’s months that are busier than others.
Faith said the Maryland Rural Development Council reached out to him when he asked why the town no longer has a circuit rider that was provided by them at no cost.
“They may come back a year from now or six months from now and say, ‘hey we have one’ but I don’t know if we do or not,” Faith said.
There are deadlines coming up soon for grants if the town wants to apply for money next year and it’s going to be hard to pull off without a grant writer, Faith added.
For a town the size of Hancock, Gratton said the $250 to $500 a month would more than suffice for meeting the hours the town would need.
Of course, there might be months where the block grants would need to be taken care of and those could take more time.
Town officials didn’t make any decisions about retaining Gratton and her services, which she didn’t expect them to do.
Officials tabled the discussion until the November town meeting.
