Windham joins Community Resilience Partnership

By Ed Pierce

Members of the Windham Town Council have adopted a resolution to participate in the Community Resilience Partnership, making the town eligible for grant funding for projects aimed at reducing energy costs and more resilient to climate change effects. 

During the council’s March 8 meeting, councilors unanimously voted to join the state initiative put forward by the Governor’s Office of Policy and Innovation Community Action Program. The partnership is a pilot program designed to increase municipal capacity and leadership to plan for climate change.

According to Gretchen Anderson, Windham’s Environmental and Sustainability Coordinator, Windham was selected to participate and has collaborated with the Greater Portland Council of Government and the Town of Bridgton to conduct three series of workshops for Windham town personnel, including town leadership, staff, and various committees, along with interested community stakeholders.

The workshops will discuss climate hazards and impacts, assess vulnerability of local assets to these hazards and identify actions and ways to improve community resilience.

By adopting the resolution and participating in the partnership’s pilot program, Anderson told the council that Windham is now able to explore available Community Action Grant funding for projects.

That funding includes grants of up to $100,000 if done jointly with another community or up to $50,000 if done separately.

“Specifically, if the activity is on the ‘List of Community Actions,’ there are no local matching funds required,” Anderson write in a memo to the councilors. “Therefore, the town could pursue $50,000 individually or $100,000 collaboratively with two or more communities.”

Anderson told the council during the meeting that to join the partnership, a community must meet three criteria of adopting a resolution of commitment, completing a pair of self-assessments, and to hold a community workshop to prioritize initial climate resilience and clean energy actions.

The Community Action Grants can support two categories of climate action by communities including an approved list of climate mitigation and adaptation activities that align with the strategies of Maine Won’t Wait, and other projects proposed by a community that support capacity building, planning, and implementation projects.  
 
Benefits of participation are a range of options that offer guidance for communities starting with climate plans and incentivizing a baseline level of climate action across the state. Those options also provide increased flexibility by allowing communities like Windham to choose actions that are most relevant and feasible, while also providing support for community climate and energy saving priorities.

Projects which could receive grant funding are intended to address specific climate change effects such as flooding, extreme weather, drought, and public health impacts.  

“This program will give us a lot of options,” Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts told the council.

Windham councilors voted unanimously to adopt the resolution.

The Maine Community Resilience Partnership is a $4.75 million grant program designed to help municipal and tribal governments start or improve climate action plans. The $20 million Maine Climate Infrastructure Fund, through the Maine Department of Transportation, will also provide grants to improve stormwater, drinking water, and wastewater infrastructure.

In the first year of Maine's climate action plan, more than 28,000 heat pumps were installed, as well as nearly 250 electric vehicle charging stations for roughly 6,000 electric vehicles across the state, so the initiative is making an impact in the state.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills said the state is making unprecedented strides to embrace clean energy, to reduce carbon emissions, to strengthen the state’s economy, and help our local communities fight climate change.” <