CALUMET — The Michigan Department of Treasury announced on Tuesday that Calumet Village has been awarded two grants totaling more than $570,000 through the Financially Distressed Cities, Villages and Townships Grant Program. One award, a Public service enhancement through infrastructure replacement at the village hall building totals $323,450. The other is a public service enhancement through infrastructure replacement at the public works a for $247,500.

The grant for the Village Hall building will include replacing the roof of the hall side of the building, as well as tuck-pointing around the village hall portion of the building.

“We sort of split the Calumet Theatre from the Village Hall,” said Village Manager Megan Haselden, “because this is sort of aimed towards distressed villages.”

In addition to the roof and tuck pointing, funding will also be used to repair and rebuild windows to their historic appearance, but will be more efficient, Haselden said.

A power line running through the alley, along the rear of the building will cause some issues during the upcoming repairs, she said, so it will be buried.

“Its just the very first phase of a very long project of restoring and rehabilitating this building,” said Haselden. “We still will have a lot of need to get the job done, but this is the first phase of funding and once we get that roof over the ballroom repaired, I think that can open up a lot of avenues for finding volunteers and/or smaller grant funds to help us with repair of plaster damage in the ballroom and in the foyers, and repainting the ballroom and having a really nice space.”

The roof, which is original to the 1899-1900 reconstruction of the building, is in drastic need of replacement. During the regular monthly meeting of the Board of the Calumet Theatre Company on Monday, Nathan Jones, theater director of operations, reported that the recent rapid snow melt and period of rain, the damaged roof created a literal waterfall above the choir loft, running down the stairs from the loft, and eventually flowed into the village hall office.

Haselden, who is a member of the board, reported that Copper Range Roofing is scheduled to repair the roof leak.

“Hopefully,” she said at the meeting, “we’re going to be getting that grant soon, and then we’ll just be getting a whole new roof.” She received the grant award announcement the next day.

On Wednesday, Haselden said that section of the roof has been leaking for a long time and the damage has significantly increased, so the repairs planned for this week will arrest the issue until the roof will be replaced.

The other grant, for just under $250,000, will fund repairs necessary to the Department of Public Works garage. Repairs will include a new roof, siding repairs, replacing the concrete floor and installing a larger overhead door.

“These repairs have been needed for a very long time,” Haselden said. “The initial estimate that we got for the DPW garage was many years ago, but since then, no repairs had been done.”

The village is very fiscally distressed, she added, and none of the repairs talked about would be possible without some significant funding.