GREENFIELD — Local government officials from all over Franklin County and into the Berkshires met on Tuesday for a presentation on the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program, the state’s initiative to address the effects of climate change.
“I don’t think this is news to anyone in this room, but we are clearly experiencing significant climate change impacts and extreme weather,” said Katie Theoharides, assistant secretary of climate change for the state.
Floods in central and western Massachusetts have become more frequent in recent years, Theoharides said, and many towns in the area have had problems with infrastructure breaking down, especially culverts. The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program provides grant money for towns to repair and rebuild old infrastructure to be more resilient against extreme weather. The program also supports “nature-based” solutions, like creations of stream continuities to better contain water from storms.
Theoharides explained that the program functions by cooperating with the local governmental infrastructure that is already in place.
“Rather than saying, ‘This is something new, and on top of everything else you have to do some separate plan,’ it’s us working to understand what their responsibilities are, and then showing them how climate change fits it,” Theoharides said. “We don’t want anyone to have to go back and reinvent something you already did.”
There are multiple grants that towns can apply for. Funding can be between $10,000 and $400,000 per project, but requires a contribution from the town of at least 25 percent.
The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program began in 2017. For 2018, the program is receiving 10 times more funding than it did in 2017.
Carolyn Ness, chairwoman of the Selectboard and Board of Health in Deerfield, attended Tuesday’s meeting. Deerfield is one of seven towns in Franklin County that was enrolled in the program last year. She said Deerfield has had to be proactive in addressing the effects of extreme weather because of the town’s location between the Connecticut River on its east side and the Deerfield River, which splits from the Connecticut at the town’s northern border with Greenfield, on its west side.
“This program, really, I have to say, works,” Ness said. “After many years of working with different programs, this is by far the best.”
The other six Franklin County towns that are already in the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program are Ashfield, Buckland, Colrain, Conway, Charlemont and Montague.
Ness said the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program enables small communities to endure intense weather events without going bankrupt.
“These extreme events have real financial, fiscal impacts for us as communities,” Ness said.
Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton explained that the program was part of the state government’s efforts to collect useful data on how the whole state is being affected by the changing weather patterns.
“From the New York-Vermont border all the way to the tip of P-Town (Provincetown) we want to capture that whole snapshot so we know exactly what it is and how we can plan going forward,” he said. “There is no way we can do it on our own, sitting in our buildings in Boston. It’s only going to be a successful effort if we’re on the ground, working with folks.”
Contact Max Marcus:
413-772-0261, ext. 261
mmarcus@recorder.com