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A federal review panel is sitting on a half-million-dollar decision about Marblehead's history. The woman who wrote the application won't be here when the answer comes.
Marblehead resident Donna Cotterell finished her last day Friday as the town's dedicated grant coordinator and writer — 18 months after she started, and with more work left undone than she would have liked. Earlier this spring she learned her position would be eliminated under all three budget scenarios the town presented for a permanent override. The future of the Department of Community Development and Planning remains uncertain pending the override's outcome in June.
"I loved my time here," Cotterell said. "I love the people I work with, I love my department. I wish we could have done more."
Her next role takes her to the Massachusetts Office of Economic Development's Social Equity Program, where she will steward cannabis equity grantees — entrepreneurs who received between $25,000 and $300,000 through a state program designed to support communities disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition. The work closely mirrors what she did managing agricultural pass-through grants for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Florida, but this mission resonates more personally.
"We're helping people who were left out of the process," she said. "The people we were locking up — we're going to help for the same industry."
It is a posture she has held since the beginning. Cotterell discovered grant writing at 19 while working for Rock Against Racism, a nonprofit that used breakdancing and rap to bridge racial divides among youth. The line from that first application to a program built explicitly to correct decades of harm runs straight through her career.
What she is leaving behind is substantial. During 2025, the department secured $201,042 in awarded grants spanning projects from climate resilience to public infrastructure. Cotterell managed American Rescue Plan Act funding compliance, coordinated the Devereux Beach Americans with Disabilities Act improvements project, helped advance the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's Accelerating Climate Resilience initiative — bringing shade, green infrastructure and communal gathering spaces to public housing sites across town — and built the department's internal grant-tracking system nearly from scratch.
But the losses weigh on her too. The town's non-compliance with Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40A, Section 3A, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Communities Act, cost the department more than $3.9 million in denied grant applications in 2025 alone, plus the rescission of a $50,000 Massachusetts 250 grant for Sails & Stories, a planned celebration of Marblehead's role in the American Revolution.
"Everybody knows our hands were tied when we weren't in compliance anymore," Cotterell said. "I really regret that we didn't get to spend the $50,000 that we got for that tourism grant. We would have had an amazing time."
Among the projects she most fears will slip through without her is a $6,250 grant from the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization's Community Connections Program for bike racks at various locations around town, matched by $1,250 from the Rotary Club of Marblehead. The numbers are modest. That is exactly the point.
"It might get left out because it's such a small amount of money," she said, "but it's not the money. It's really demonstrating to the Department of Transportation that we can follow through on what we agreed to when we signed the grant agreement."
The project Cotterell is proudest of — and most invested in seeing succeed — is "We Were There: Reclaiming the Histories of Black and Indigenous Marbleheaders in the Revolution," a Massachusetts Humanities-funded initiative documenting residents who served alongside Col. John Glover during the Revolutionary War. The project grew from research she encountered while writing other grant applications.
"These people lived here in Marblehead, and they went off to war with Glover," she said. "But we don't know them."
Massachusetts Humanities is partnering with GBH, the Boston public media station, to document the project alongside three other grantee initiatives, with videographer Evan Goodchild leading the production. Cotterell has also written a stage play by the same name; a reading is scheduled for Aug. 22 at the Marblehead Little Theatre — one sign, among several, that she is not disappearing from town.
Still pending is a separate application to the National Endowment for the Humanities for $500,000 over three years, focused on Marblehead's Revolutionary War and military history. A decision has been pushed to mid-July. Cotterell will be long gone by then.
Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer credited Cotterell with significantly expanding the town's capacity to pursue external funding and praised her for coordinating grant efforts across departments while meeting all compliance and reporting requirements.
"Donna brought a consistently positive attitude to work every day," Kezer said, "and her infectious smile will truly be missed by all of us."
She plans to continue grant writing and funding research as a freelance service, helping nonprofits and small organizations navigate a process she has spent decades mastering.
Cotterell walked the town's public coastal pathways during Perambulation Day on Marblehead Neck last year, spent two hours talking with residents about waterfront access and who gets to have it, and called the Fourth of July one of the best days she has had in town.
This took careful reporting because the dollars, deadlines and tradeoffs matter: $201,042 awarded, more than $3.9 million denied and a $500,000 federal decision still pending. Because you read local coverage that tracks what town capacity means in real projects, support it today as one of the neighbors keeping this work available to all. 🟦 Become a member here.
