$158,000 grant will help buy, conserve 15 acres.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Donna Boynton

MILLBURY - The town has received a $158,000 grant from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, putting the purchase of 15 acres of land to protect Mount Ararat within reach.

The Mount Ararat effort was only one of a dozen projects to receive funding through the fiscal 2010 Land Acquisitions for Natural Diversity grants. This round of grants totaled $4 million and protected a total of 813 acres in the state.

The grant funding was announced Nov. 19 by Ian Bowles, secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The state grant will be matched by a total of $4.2 million municipal, private and nonprofit funds.

Voters at the annual town meeting in May approved acquiring the 14.9-acre parcel from the original developer of Phase 2 of Brierly Pond Village. Since then the town has teamed up with the Metacomet Land Trust, the Conservation Commission, the Friends of Millbury Open Space, the Millbury Improvement Initiative and local business Flo-Dell Exterior Restoration to raise the $240,000 needed to buy the land.

Once purchased, the land will create a swath of 73 acres of town-owned land that will be overseen by the Conservation Commission.

With the grant award, the town has accumulated $230,000 to date, with only $10,000 remaining, Town Planner Laurie Connors said yesterday.

However, Ms. Connors said the fundraising goal has been raised by $8,500 because the town will have to pay interest on money it will have to borrow for 60 days for the purchase while it waits to receive the grant.

"The grant is reimbursable," explained Ms. Connors. "So we are going to have to raise $6,000 to cover the...