Special To The Independent
The City of Everett, as part of a regional effort, has received major grants from the state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program to help people and places prepare for extreme weather.
“Everett is a city on the move,” said Mayor Carlo DeMaria. “These grants will support and inform our efforts to keep residents and businesses cooler and protected from flooding as we undergo generational transformation.”
Following the release of $32.6 million in state FY2023 MVP Grants, The Mystic River Watershed Association announced that Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) cities and towns, including Everett, had secured a total of $8.6 million in state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) funding. Of these funds, over $7 million were grants for multi-community projects, and nearly $1.6 million went to projects in individual municipalities. In addition, Congresswomen Katherine Clark and Ayanna Pressley and Congressman Seth Moulton are working to secure $12.2 million in Community Project grants through the FY2023 federal budget, bringing the total in new funding for heat and flood resilience to nearly $21 million.
“Flooding from extreme rainfall events, storm surges on top of a rising sea level, and longer, more intense heat waves are climate impacts that don’t stop at municipal boundaries,” said John Walkey, Director of Waterfront and Climate Justice Initiatives at GreenRoots. “But they do tend to be felt worse in historically disinvested communities. We greatly appreciate that the MVP Program supports projects addressing social vulnerabilities from a regional perspective, as the communities of the RMC are doing.”
Each of the municipalities that championed these climate resilient projects is a founding member of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC), a watershed-wide voluntary partnership focused on regional climate resilience. Convened by MyRWA in September 2018 and led by senior staff from 20 cities and towns and non-governmental partners, the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) focuses on managing flooding and extreme heat on a regional scale and increasing the resilience of our most vulnerable residents and workers to extreme weather. These projects are the result of years of analysis and design by both individual communities and multiple municipalities working collectively.
“Our communities are where climate resilience either happens or doesn’t,” said Julie Wormser, Senior Policy Advisor for the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA). “Years of collective research and planning are turning into on-the-ground projects that will make a real difference in people’s lives. These state and federal investments are both a recognition of and essential support for their great work.”
The cities of Everett, Revere, Malden, and Everett, all longtime members of the RMC, are working with their coastal neighbors to the north, Saugus and Lynn. The cities secured $151,000 to begin work on a regional Saugus River Watershed Vulnerability and Adaptation Study to help these coastal communities manage coastal flood damage.
.Following is the list of 2023 MVP grants involving projects and studies that affect Everett:
Regional Projects
Everett + Chelsea
Island End River Flood Resilience Project
$2,998,600
Everett, Malden, Chelsea, Arlington
Beat the Heat
Wicked Cool Outdoors
$339,915
Revere, Saugus, Malden, Everett, & Lynn
Regional Saugus River Watershed Vulnerability and Adaptation Study
$150,872