Local lawmakers applaud grant for Jones winery in Shelton

$25,000 to go toward facility expansion
HARTFORD - State Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, and state Reps. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton, and Larry Miller, R-Stratford, applaud the Department of Agriculture for awarding Jones Family Farms Winery in Shelton a grant through the Agriculture Viability Grants Program.

“I want to congratulate the Jones family on their incredible efforts to keep local farm production thriving in Shelton,” Kelly said. “This grant is well deserved and I look forward to watching the farm grow and take on new projects.”

The Shelton winery will use the $25,000 grant to help fund an expansion of their wine-production facility.
The expansion is estimated to cost $203,365 and will enable the winery to significantly increase production.

“The Jones Family Farms Winery is a perfect example of the growing agri-tourism industry that is making a mark across the state and in Shelton,”  Perillo said.  “They are a great family business. I congratulate them on this grant and look forward to continued agricultural projects by their family and others throughout Shelton in the years ahead.”

“My congratulations go to the Jones Family Farm,” Miller said.  “They are one of the finest examples of a family-owned and operated agricultural business in our area, and I am excited to see the expansion they are enabled to achieve through the use of this grant.”

“I want to thank the state of Connecticut for investing in our farm and winery,” said Jamie Jones, a sixth generation farmer in the Jones family. “This year the winery is 10 years old. We’ve grown steadily since our start and have reached the point that we need to make a greater quantity and variety of wine. We will be using this grant to help us increase our number of tanks and production capability.”

Jones Winery is one of more than 40 organizations, including farms, agricultural non-profits and municipalities, that received state funding last week totaling $880,327 as part of a state-wide effort to grow Connecticut’s agricultural economy.

Funding was made available through the Agriculture Department’s Farm Transition Grant and Farm Viability Grant programs, designed to increase farm production, promote Connecticut Grown products and create jobs.

The funding, which requires a match from the grantee, will leverage nearly $2.4 million in investments throughout the state.

“The Jones family has provided amazing Connecticut-grown produce to the Shelton community for generations. This farm and winery represent our local history as well as the future of agriculture in Connecticut,” Kelly said.

The Jones farm began in 1848 with Philip James Jones, a Welsh-Irish immigrant. The farm expanded and the vineyard was added in 1999 at the Pumpkinseed Hill location by Jamie Jones. They bottled and sold their first wine in 2004.  

For more information, visit: www.jonesfamilyfarms.com/winery. 


This is a press release from state Sen. Kevin Kelly's office.

Opinion: Ansonia EDC chairman welcomes funds for W. Main Street

By Vinnie Scarlata
Guest columnist

Congratulations to us, Ansonia, on receiving a $483,000 grant from the state that will enable us to refurbish West Main Street and our commuter parking area adjacent to the railroad station.

Some explanation of the grant process may be helpful to those who are critics of this grant.

Comments stating “We should be using the money for this or that,” or “Why are we doing this when we should be looking at that x, y, z,” fail to grasp how the state grant application process works. A grant application is designated for a very specific purpose. 

When the state approves and awards a grant, such as our newest West Main Street Project, the money cannot be used for any other purpose but those spelled out in our proposal or they can withdraw their funding. We are bound by the specifics of our application, nothing more and nothing less.

Understand, also, different state agencies target different municipal needs. The state looks to support local initiatives that fit a formula for economic growth. They offer funds in hopes of spurring new local economic activity, targeted to specific categories.

This grant was hosted jointly by Connecticut Main Street Center and the Office of Policy and Management. 

Their specific targets here are the downtown areas of Connecticut. This money is to help in rejuvenating Connecticut Main Streets, not school systems, not police departments or road work, but downtown centers.

Downtown revival 

Our West Main Street Project was originally Phase 1 of the City’s River Walk Project, designed for Ansonia by DeCarlo and Doll Inc. (D&D) of Meriden. 

This Phase 1 had been designed, planned and approved together with the entirety of the River Walk Project. For budget purposes, however, this West Main Street phase was pulled from the group to be revisited at a later date. It was, nonetheless, an approved and viable project. 

When this grant offering was posted by the state, D&D recognized West Main Street’s potential for this grant and it became the perfect project for submission. There was a very narrow window of time to submit and not nearly enough time to design an alternate project. D&D was ultimately hired by Ansonia’s Economic Development Commission (EDC) to write this grant on our behalf.

Our EDC’s goal these last two years has been the revival of our downtown and this project dovetails with that vision, much the same as the Farmers' Market, Bike Festival, and Storefront Improvement Program as well as the Cultural Commission's Concert Series and Harvest Festival, to name a few with much more to come.
They are all designed to help spur economic activity for us downtown. These kinds of grants are investments in us by the state.
They are catalysts to be used by us for growth, not just money to be spent frivolously.

The state has recognized our push towards revitalization and is acknowledging that with its support. 

Rest assured, Ansonia’s EDC will be good stewards of these funds and this project.

Scarlata, chairman of the Ansonia Economic Development Commission, shared this column with the media today.