BEACON FALLS — The Board of Selectmen on Monday approved hiring Thomas Sobocinski to be the town’s first grant writer.
The position was created in this year’s budget, and officials budgeted $10,000 for it.
Sobocinski has worked as a grant writer since 2000 and founded his own grant writing company, CT Grant Writers, LLC, in 2014, according to his resume.
“Mr. Sobocinski has been active not only in seeking and processing of grant applicants but is also an instructor at Fairfield University, where he teaches courses on grant writing,” First Selectman Christopher Bielik said.
As of Monday, the town was still working out a contract with Sobocinski. He will be paid an hourly rate, and his first contract will run through the end of the fiscal year.
Bielik said the idea behind the position is to have someone dedicated to applying for grants and, hopefully, it will pay off by bringing in more money than the town spends on the position.
“The challenge before was not having anybody on staff with the time or requisite skill sets to be able to do that work for us,” Bielik said.
Board of Finance Chairman Joe Rodorigo, who originally spearheaded the push for a grant writer, was pleased to see the town move forward with filling position.
“I think Beacon Falls needs to maximize every avenue they can to bring in revenue and to save expenditure,” Rodorigo said. “I think we picked a very good grant writer. Because it is a per diem position, it is in his best interest to get grants and in the town’s best interest to receive grants.”
Bielik said the town originally looked for someone with municipal grant experience, which Sobocinski does not have.
“Those municipalities that have a grant writer were reluctant to share that grant writer with us, not surprisingly. It seems like most people that get involved in this don’t get any municipal experience until they are hired by their first municipality. We didn’t feel that was any kind of detriment to the skill set that he brings,” Bielik said.
