The Town of Clarksburg has been Awarded $215,148 in MVP Action Grant Funds from the Healey Driscoll Administration to Build Climate Resilience
Clarksburg, MA 09/01/2023
The Clarksburg Selectboard is thrilled to announce it has received a $215,148 climate resilience grant to the Four Corners Climate Resiliency Project
Timeline, Scope, and Budget
The Town aims to improvements the Four Corners area by improving drainage of existing swales by converting them to retention bioswales, creating a natural detention and retention area for water to infiltrate, replacing walking bridges between the town field parking lot and the school, and re- envisioning the field use for the betterment of Clarksburg and surrounding towns. The Town expects the project to be completed in three phases:
Phase I: Project Design
With secured funding, the Town of Clarksburg will hire an open-space landscape designer to lead the Town through a park design process. The design process will address drainage issues, restore floodplain function and lead the community in process that rethinks how the park can best serve the community. An important element of this phase will be resident and visitor engagement. See the outreach section below for proposed outreach activities.
Time: 2 years
Estimated Budget: $200,000
FUTURE COMPONENTS AND PHASES PLANNED INCLUDE (funding permitting):
Phase II: Final Designs and Permitting
Phase II will take conceptual designs created during Phase I and create final engineering designs for any elements where engineering is needed (ex. bioswales and rain gardens, trails and bridge paths). The Town will work with stakeholders to secure all necessary permits and permissions, including a long term maintenance plan and easements in order for the town to maintain any structures sited on private property. With final designs, outreach will be conducted to gather input on final design work and feedback integrated prior to implementation.
Time: 2 years
Estimated Budget: $250,000
Phase III: Implementation & Construction
We foresee the implementation phases of this project in two pa1ts. The first part will address storm water drainage, and stream restoration. The second will focus on path, bridge, and park designs. What goes into each phase will depend largely on the design plans created and feedback from the community during Phase I & II.
Time: 5-8 years
Estimated Budget: $1.5 million
Awarded by the Healey-Driscoll Administration's Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program, which is administered by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), these competitive grants support communities in identifying climate hazards, developing strategies to improve resilience, and implementing priority actions to adapt to climate change. Clarksburg is one of 79 projects to have received action grant funding in the latest round of applications.
"This has been a multi-year effort starting with the Hazard Mitigation Plan development starting in 2019. Significant volunteer time, effort and ideas have gone into this project. The MVP Committee is made up by Bob Norcross, Clebe Scott, Jim Brandon, Emily Roselli, Lauren Norcross, Miranda Bona, and Courteny Moorehouse an Environmental & Energy Program Senior Planner with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.
The MVP program, created in 2017, provides funding for community-driven climate resilience planning and action. Ninety-nine percent, or 349 out of 351 of the Commonwealth's cities and towns, are participating in the program and over $131.5 .million has been awarded for local climate resilience planning and projects. Communities originally enrolled in the program by completing the MVP Planning Grant process (MVP 1.0), which then opened up access to apply for an MVP Action Grant, or implementation funding. EEA has recently launched the MVP 2.0 update to the original MVP planning grant, and after this pilot round intends to require communities to undergo MVP 2.0 to maintain eligibility in applying for MVP Action Grants.