SOUTHWICK – A core team has been assembled in order to move forward the Town of Southwick’s M.V.P. (Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program).
The team consists of six members from different town departments: Randy Brown (DPW Director), Russ Anderson (Fire Chief), Robert Landis (Police Lieutenant), Art Lawler (Building Inspector), and Charlie Dunlap (Director of Emergency Management Services).
Southwick DPW Director Randy Brown. (Photo courtesy of Greg Fitzpatrick)
On September 11, the core team will be holding their first meeting together and will be a chance for all members to get situated.
“We’ll kind of do a little bit of brainstorming and get us all familiar with the project itself,” said Brown.
A state-run program through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the M.V.P. program addresses issues or hazards in a community that have developed due to climate change.
In early June, Brown was informed that the town had been approved for a $15,000 grant for the M.V.P. program. The grant allowed the core team to use that money to hire a trained consultant, which is Fuss & O’Neill out of West Springfield. Fuss & O’Neill will be able to assist the group through the process of becoming an M.V.P. community.
Southwick only has until June of 2019 to become an M.V.P. community and once that’s accomplished the town will have the opportunity to apply for more grants in the future.
Brown added that the assembled individual of the team will focus on any issues arising from climate change in town, the impacts, and how they can eliminate or alleviate those issues.
“I think once we start talking and collaborating, we’ll come up with some interesting ideas and potential projects that we might be able to implement,” said Brown.
Potential projects could include culverts or drainage systems that aren’t sized to accommodate water runoff or intense storms that may be attributable to climate change.
This past May, Brown informed the Westfield News that the town was in the process of joining the M.V.P. program and applying for the grant.
For more information on the program, visit the M.V.P. page at www.mass.gov.
