NEWBURY – According to Town Administrator Tracy Blais, the Town of Newbury has been approved for a Merrimack Valley Regional Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan project.
Communities in the Merrimack Valley Region have received approval from FEMA to apply for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) for mitigation grants to assist with a variety of projects related to emergency management.
The program provides significant opportunities to reduce, minimize, or eliminate potential damages to property and infrastructure from natural hazard events while reducing reliance on federal assistance for disaster recovery. Projects can be Construction Projects or “Planning, Scoping, Capability & Capacity Building” projects.
The Town of Newbury, through this approval, is now eligible for the following grants: Hazardous Mitigation Grant Program, FY24 Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA).
Currently, the Town is working on a federally funded resilience project in partnership with Newburyport and the USFWS Parker River Wildlife Refuge.
Multi-Hazardous Mitigation Plans are established to prepare towns and cities with a plan of action if disaster strikes. These plans help communities before, during, and after a crisis. This approval means that the communities can now apply for emergency federal funding in the event of a disaster or critical emergency.
Emergency Management Director and Police Chief Patricia Fisher, Planning Director Kristen Grubbs, and partners at the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission played a major role in securing this project for Newbury.
Other cities and towns that received approval as part of the Merrimack Valley Region include: Amesbury, Boxborough, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, Rowley, Salisbury, and West Newbury.
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