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Date: 1/27/2022
HUNTINGTON — Residents, businesses, and representatives from Huntington and surrounding communities are invited to learn about the town’s upcoming Hazard Mitigation and Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) planning at a public hearing on Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 24 Russell Road, Huntington.
The hearing will be part of a regularly scheduled Selectboard meeting that begins at 5:30 p.m. Participants can join the meeting online at huntingtonma.webex.com/huntingtonma/j.php?MTID=mcbe1308a35122424d64b95a121a83b1d, or by calling 415-655-0001 and entering access code 2631 904 0348# and password #.
The purpose of the hazard mitigation plan is to identify and assess Huntington’s natural hazard risks and determine how to best minimize and manage them. A mitigation action is any action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to human life and property from hazards.
“Many towns have done it,” said Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Senior Planner Mimi Kaplan, who just finished leading the planning process for the town of Russell. She said the MVP plan focuses on worsening climate hazards in particular, in an overlap with hazard mitigation planning.
Huntington developed an emergency hazard mitigation plan in 2016, which was approved by FEMA and made the town eligible to apply for certain grants from the federal agency. The additional MVP planning will make the town eligible for other MVP-action grants, according to Kaplan. This combined HMP/MVP is being completed with the assistance of PVPC and is funded by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Emergency and Environmental Affairs.
The meeting on Feb. 2 will include an overview of the planning process, a discussion of existing mitigation strategies addressing natural hazards in Huntington, and strategies currently proposed by the committee. Municipal officials and PVPC staff will be available to answer questions and hear input about the project. The meeting provides an opportunity for area residents to share their opinions and participate in the mitigation planning process.
Following the public hearing on Feb. 2, various stakeholders will be invited to workshops on infrastructure, the environment and societal features and vulnerabilities, as the next piece of the planning process.
“We’re looking at things that happen on a regular basis, snowstorms, windstorms, high temperatures, [things that are] getting more and more frequent, and what the town can do to become more resilient,” Kaplan said, responding to the question as to why residents should care to participate.
Kaplan said some of the mitigation efforts that could be identified include reducing flood impacts, replacing culverts, reducing erosion, and looking at the electrical grid and power outages.
Once the town goes through the entire process, the plan is submitted to the Executive Office of Emergency and Environmental Affairs, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for review and approval, and makes the community eligible for federal and state mitigation grant funding. The town could then apply for MVP action grants, hazard mitigation grants from FEMA, and other flood resilience measures, such as creating bioswales, which are areas that can absorb flood waters.
For more information, contact PVPC’s Mimi Kaplan at mkaplan@pvpc.org or 781-6045, or Jennifer Peloquin at admin@huntingtonma.us or 512-5200.