WILTON — A small number of residents unanimously voted Tuesday for the town to apply for a $700,000 Community Development Block Grant for Barclays Services LLC to improve its call center.

“We love Wilton. It’s the place we want to be,”  Jen McEntee, director of operations for Barclays, said.

Towns have to apply on behalf of businesses for the federal grant through the state economic development program, Town Manager Rhonda Irish said at the public hearing preceding the special town meeting at the Town Office.

The town administers the funds and oversees compliance with specific requirements, she said. One of those requirements is that the company must hire one person for every $30,000 granted. Of those hired, 50 percent must be low- or moderate-income workers.

Barclays credit card company came to Wilton in 2008 and started with 40 people in the customer service call center at Western Maine Development, McEntee said. It now employs 300 workers.

Named one of the best places in Maine to work for two years in a row, Barclays wants to make improvements to the Weld Road building, the former Bass Shoe Factory.

There are safety and technology improvements that need to be made, renovations to create more work space and improvements to the parking lot, she said.

“We want a stable environment,” she said. 

Barclays has signed a five-year contract with Western Maine Development that includes a optional 15-year extension, Gil Reed said.

When asked by resident William Rice why the large banking concern would seek a grant at the expense of national taxpayers, McEntee said the company is investing many times the amount. The grant would help cover a gap in the budget that would allow more to be done.

There are not many economic incentives for businesses to come to Maine, Selectperson Tom Saviello said. This one provides for the generation of jobs. When the company sought a place internationally, they considered two places, Farmington and Wilton, because of the quality of workers and people here, he said.

There’s risk to getting people back to work, he said.

The grant would require about 24 employees be added, but Barclays wants to add more than that, McEntee said.

About 48 percent of the 300 workers are from Wilton, East Wilton and Dryden, she said.

That’s roughly 150 people adding to the town’s tax base, Selectperson Tiffany Maiuri said. 

Rice thought people should know this is a bond for the taxpayer, a business deal the town was getting involved with. What guarantee is there, he asked.

“We want to grow here and have done that since 2008,” McEntee said. “We plan to be here and we have the accountability to follow through.”

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