Damariscotta has received a $20,000 grant for a study to evaluate the town’s options for protecting the downtown against flooding.
The town will hire an engineering consultant to conduct the study, which will focus on downtown buildings and public infrastructure.
A recent study by the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission identified downtown Damariscotta as vulnerable to flood damage from sea-level rise and storm events.
According to the grant application, the study indicated Damariscotta “is not only the most significantly impacted coastal village in the county, it may very well be the most at-risk community in all of coastal Maine.”
The grant is an award from the Coastal Communities Grant Program. The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry administers the program.
The grant requires a $5,000 match, which the town will withdraw from its contingency account.
Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus announced the grant award at the Dec. 4 meeting of the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen. The grant process is “highly competitive” and the receipt of the grant is “fantastic news,” Lutkus said.
Lincoln County Planner Bob Faunce “did a dynamite job of putting together the grant and selling the decision makers on Damariscotta,” Lutkus said.
Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Director of Municipal Planning Assistance Elizabeth Hertz notified Lutkus of the award in a Nov. 26 letter.
“We welcome the opportunity to support Damariscotta in evaluating adaptation options to protect its historic downtown,” Hertz said in the letter.
The study will examine options such as “walls, berms, building flood-proofing, elevation of equipment within impacted buildings and, potentially, building relocation,” according to the grant application.
