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Date: 9/12/2023
EASTHAMPTON — Easthampton received $304,800 in Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness money from the state to continue their Emerald Place Resiliency design.
According to Diane Rossini-Smith, Easthampton’s staff engineer, this grant builds upon the work already completed as part of the initial design done by the fiscal year 2023 MVP Action Grant for Emerald Place Resiliency and the city’s Community Development Block Grant New City Planning Study.
The $304,800 grant pushes the larger project to finalized designs, including slope stabilization, road/sidewalk improvements, a climate change art installation sign, underground infrastructure improvements and a pedestrian bridge on Ferry Street that connects the neighborhood to the bike path.
“This funding allows us to tackle some of the drainage problems that have been developing over the last few years by mitigating the upstream drainage and stabilizing the slope,” Rossini-Smith told Reminder Publishing. “Projects like this are not small projects and we are seeing more and more issues like this with the increasing intensity of the storms.”
The Emerald Place resiliency design is part of a larger multi-year investment in the city’s New City neighborhood to improve aging infrastructure, including water, sewer, drainage, roads, sidewalks, parks, bikeways and more.
According to Rossini-Smith, the initial design for Emerald Place was completed during the last round of funding and included input from public meetings.
“We will take the information gained through both the initial analysis and the input from residents to create final design documents,” Rossini-Smith said of future steps.
Easthampton was one of 56 municipalities that received these MVP Action Grants for projects that focus on proactive strategies to address climate change impacts. According to a state announcement, the Healey-Driscoll administration dolled out $28.5 million to 79 local implementation projects.
According to Rossini-Smith, the grant has a deadline of June 30, 2024, and the hope is to apply for construction of the Emerald Place improvements following the completion of the design.