Rockport may get $2 million in resilience funding from the State of Maine, and several businesses in the Midcoast are to likewise receive grants from the same fund, albeit with lesser amounts of money. 

The office of Maine Governor Janet Mills announced July 22 that 68 working waterfronts were set to receive $21.2 million in resilience grants from the state to support recovery and rebuilding from damage caused by devastating storms this past winter.

The designations are preliminary, said the Governor’s office: “pending a final review of project eligibility. Once a project receives final grant approval, funding is expected to be distributed after August 9, when the supplemental budget legislation takes effect.”

The program enabled grant applicants to request up to $2 million for design, permitting and construction of their project; applicants were also required to provide a 1-to-1 financial match toward the cost of the work.

In addition to Rockport, other Midcoast entities in line for grants include:

The Working Waterfront Resilience Grant Program is a joint initiative of the Maine Department of Transportation, Maine Department of Marine Resources, and the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.

In Rockport, the town will use the money to fulfill goals identified in the Harbor Master Plan. The progress and process of that plan is currently underway, according to Rockport Planner Orion Thomas. 

DMR, the DOT and GOPIF reviewed 80 applications for the program, the Governor’s office said.

“Projects eligible for funds included owners of critical working waterfront infrastructure that served at least 10 commercial fishermen or aquaculturists for the purposes of providing waterfront access and landing product to maximize the impact of each award,” it said.

Grants from the Working Waterfront Resilience Grant Program are funded with $60 million in State funding that Governor Mills proposed and the Legislature authorized through the supplemental budget in May – the single largest investment in storm recovery by any Administration in Maine history.

The 68 working waterfront projects set to receive grant funds represent a range of needs, including reconstruction and improvement of damaged wharves and piers, rebuilding and restoration of key support buildings such as bait sheds, and repairing and upgrading fuel and electrical systems. A list of preliminarily approved applicants and funding requests is available here (PDF).

In total, the resilience grant program had $25 million available for working waterfront recovery.

“Working waterfronts are a cornerstone of our coastal communities and our economy, and last winter’s devastating storm demonstrated just how vulnerable they are to extreme weather and climate change,” said Governor Mills, in the news release. “These grants will help rebuild working waterfronts so they are able to better withstand future storms, protecting access to the water now and for generations to come.”

“This funding represents an important investment by the state in Maine’s critical yet vulnerable working waterfront,” said Patrick Keliher, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “With commercial access already so limited, it is imperative that we protect these properties from climate driven events and safeguard an industry that is so important to our state’s economic future. I would be remiss if I didn’t publicly thank our state partners. This is a great example of agencies working together on a common cause to expedite this program and bring much needed relief to an impacted industry.”

“The storms of December and January were a wake-up call for many across our state to the need to urgently invest in resilience to the growing effects of climate change, such as flooding, storm surge, and intense, extreme storms,” said Hannah Pingree, Director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future and co-chair of the Maine Climate Council. “These grants today will help our critical working waterfronts recover and rebuild from the unprecedented damage caused by the January storms, while work on ways to improve our ability to protect our state’s people, communities, and infrastructure from future harm is underway.”

“This funding is critical for us, because we had to replace both docks here at the co-op after the storms last winter destroyed pilings, snapped fuel lines, left our office building with no support structure, and damaged electrical wiring and our freezer,” said Linda Vannah, Manager, New Harbor Co-op. “These funds will help rebuild the docks higher by up to two feet, repair the wiring, replace our freezer, and move the office to a safer location. With these repairs, we should be able to withstand the more intense storms we’re seeing and continue to serve the fishermen who depend on us.”

“Without this funding we wouldn’t be able to complete the reconstruction of our wharf here at the co-op after the damage caused by last winter’s storms,” said Ron Trundy, Manager, Stonington Co-op. “We were able to start the process so we could return to work by June, but this funding lets us complete the work by reinforcing the base of the wharf with stonework and increasing the height of the wharf by two feet, which will make the co-op resilient to future storms.”

Maine DOT administers the grant funds, which will be distributed to recipients in collaboration with municipalities in an approach adapted from DOT’s Locally Administered Project program. Municipalities will act as a pass-through for funding to the applicant and confirm that funded work has been completed.

In addition to the Working Waterfront Resilience Grant Program, the Governor and Legislature allocated $35 million to two other funds for storm recovery: the $10 million Business Recovery and Resilience Fund, to provide direct support to businesses harmed by the winter storms, and $25 million for the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund, for projects that make public infrastructure more resilient to storms and flooding.

Grants applications for those programs are now being reviewed, with decisions expected in coming weeks.

In May, Governor Mills signed an Executive Order to establish a new commission that will develop the State of Maine’s first plan for long-term infrastructure resilience, following the two devastating winter storms and a record eight storm-related Federal disaster declarations in Maine over the past two years.

The 24-member commission will engage with communities, industries, and organizations across Maine to understand challenges following storms, identify and bridge gaps in resources like funding, financing, and insurance, how to improve the resilience of energy systems, propose new approaches to improve disaster recovery and response, and strengthen resilience supports at the state, regional, and local levels.