Town staff described plans to use the Community Resilience Partnership grant to expand mass notification and pursue energy-efficiency projects, and asked the Select Board to support outreach funding in the $5,000'$7,500 range.

Staff said York County Emergency Management Agency operates a Rave alert system that towns may join; Rave can send text, email and automated voice calls (for landlines), supports geo-targeting and can run polls that require recipients to confirm receipt. "We could actually send out a polling to people to people who have joined the polling part, and they would have to basically check yes that they've received it," the Town Manager said, noting that a negative response could trigger a wellness check by police.

Staff proposed spending $5,000'$7,500 of grant funding for a targeted outreach campaign, including mailers and in-person events (for example, at the Millfield Festival and senior housing complexes) to enroll residents in the system. Mike Barker (staff) has been trained on Rave and has used it; town staff would require roughly 45 minutes of training to operate the system and the county EMA would hold the master database.

Energy and building items discussed for the grant application included: an estimate of about $365,000 to convert the community building to a full heat-pump system (described by staff as "extremely invasive" in an older building); a like-for-like replacement of the existing air-handling/chiller system priced at about $65,000 (which town staff said would not qualify for certain grants); Efficiency Maine potentially covering about two-thirds of eligible costs for larger projects; EV charger pricing (under review); and a small heat-pump hot-water heater for the highway department estimated near $2,500. Staff said the grant can be reapplied for every two years and staff planned to submit an application in mid-to-late August.

Why it matters: The Rave system would give the town a mass-notification capability for weather, outages and other emergencies and allow targeted follow-up; the energy upgrades could reduce long-term energy use but require substantial capital investment and may depend on outside funding such as Efficiency Maine grants.

Next steps: Staff will complete the grant application (due late August), include $5,000'$7,500 for outreach, finalize cost estimates for EV chargers and hot-water systems, and return to the Select Board with the full application and projected town matching costs.