HALLOWELL -- City councilors Monday unanimously approved joining in regional efforts with Augusta and Gardiner to seek grants and other assistance for waterfront development.

Ed Cervone of the Maine Development Foundation, a Hallowell resident, said two state grant applications are coming up soon that could help pay for portions of the city's waterfront park project. But he warned city officials must act quickly if they hope to meet the application deadlines.

"Ed (Cervone) and (City Manager David Giroux) are authorized to move ahead and apply for any regional grants we have an opportunity to do because we haven't had much luck on our own," said Councilor Phillip Lindley.

The grant programs are very competitive, Cervone cautioned, and municipalities applying should be prepared to put up some of their own money to match funds obtained from most sources.

Although Hallowell's waterfront park is well along in its development, with more than $600,000 invested in the project already, Cervone said that, to be truly competitive, the city should have detailed engineering plans and cost estimates on hand for future phases.

In many of these grant applications, higher priorities are given to projects that involve regional efforts among several municipalities, Cervone said.

Augusta and Gardiner officials are already strongly supportive of the effort, he said.

"We wanted to see if the three big anchors on this side of the river with downtowns along the river were willing to play," Cervone said. "Then we'll look for other partners."

Those other partners might be other municipalities or even individual businesses or other organizations with strong interests in the river, he said.

A number of grant programs require quick applications without time to develop new plans, he said, so city officials should gather what they have and formalize plans for the future so they can be ready.

In the first two grant opportunities -- one, a $5 million river improvement bond approved by voters last year; the other, an ongoing Municipal Infrastructure Trust Fund with a May 9 deadline -- regional cooperation is an important factor in the judging, Cervone said.

"As a collective voice, we get heard better," Cervone said.

Giroux also announced at Monday's meeting that the school budget councilors were asked to sign increased by $73,000, to $1,903,000. He said the Kennebec County assessment to the city was up more than $14,000 to $202,000.

And councilors gave Giroux informal approval to move ahead with the purchase of a specialized $8,000 camera to survey the condition of the city's storm-water drain pipes and help identify places where repairs are needed rather than pay $800 a day to rent one.

Gary Remal -- 621-5642

gremal@centralmaine.com