Western Mass. delegation announces $7.5M for storm response

Date: 1/18/2022

CHESTER – State Sens. Adam G. Hinds and Jo Comerford and state Reps. Natalie Blais and Jacob R. Oliveira gathered at Chester Town Hall on Jan. 13 to announce newly secured funding of $7.5 million in state disbursement to small towns in western and central Massachusetts for damages resulting from a July 2021 storm.

Hinds filed an amendment to the ARPA spending bill for the funding, and he joined with Comerford in the Senate to secure the final appropriation. The money will come as critical relief to small towns in Western Massachusetts which were impacted by the devastating storm cell that caused an estimated $22 million in damages to 50 towns and 25 state parks and forests.

Hinds said the group also gathered in Chester to make a call and appeal to the state to invest in infrastructure in Western Massachusetts.

MEMA’s initial damage assessment was enough to get FEMA involved but was short of meeting FEMA’s county and state thresholds, Hinds said, and the state did not receive any federal assistance for the storm. The legislators started to hear from deeply concerned town officials about their situations. He said the towns sent out a “May Day – we’ve got a problem here” message.

“Despite no federal assistance, the towns were still stuck fixing the roads,” Hinds said.

Thanking town officials like Chester Town Administrator Katherine Warden, and Selectboard members for their persistence, Hinds said, “This is how government is supposed to work.”

Warden thanked the local efforts of Chester highway supervisor Carl Baldasaro and his crew for responding and for documenting the level of damage. She said they spent hours with MEMA and FEMA, and although they didn’t meet the threshold, she said the MEMA and MassDOT regional offices were very supportive of the effort.

In the end, the state gave Chester the ability to overspend its highway account by $250,000 for sand and gravel for immediate repairs to the roads that were washed out, both paved and unpaved.

Chester Selectman Jason Forgue thanked the legislators for their support in getting ARPA funds. “The mere need for this amendment is symptomatic of the state house failing to properly respond to the needs of rural communities,” he said, adding “These senators and representatives here have been fighting for funds nearly six months after the fact,” calling the time lag “unacceptable.”

Comerford said local communities grappled immediately and tirelessly with “the storm that came out of nowhere. It didn’t stop local folks from keeping the community safe. I agree, the state and federal governments should have done more, sooner.”

She said the Western Massachusetts delegation has locked arms around the need to invest in infrastructure in the western counties. “We are small in number, but great in chutzpah. This is a heck of a long under-investment of infrastructure in local communities,” Comerford said.

“I’m glad to lock arms with these folks and bring it home,” Hinds said, calling it a team effort that needs both the house and the senate. He called Rep. Natalie Blais “a fierce advocate and leader on the House side.”

Blais said she was pleased to be standing next to her colleagues. She talked about unpaved roads, and the burden they are on towns with “more and more frequent and intense storms. The costs are creeping up,” she said, adding that the state house needs to be more aware of unpaved roads. After the storm, she put a call out to the towns for photos, which she said were “shocking.”

“We were disappointed when we didn’t meet the threshold for federal dollars. Because towns like Chester didn’t give up, there was no way we were going to give up,” Blais said, adding that she agrees the funds are too late.

State Rep. Jacob Oliveira was also in attendance in Chester on behalf of Belchertown and Chicopee, which both suffered significant damage in the July 2021 storm. He said in Belchertown, one road washed out and was completely cut off due to flooding from the Swift River. “It was a dangerous situation. The next day, there were dead fish in 90 degree weather.” He said damages to homes were in the tens of thousands, and wells were also impacted.

Oliveira said he is pleased to partner with his colleagues. “We know these events aren’t going away, because of extreme weather impacted by climate change,” he said.

When asked how the funding will be divided up, Blais said they are still working that out, but it will be specific to the communities that had damages from the storm that didn’t meet the FEMA threshold.