A resident urged the Barre City Council on Sept. 30 to use federal disaster-recovery grant opportunities to tackle long-standing flooding from Potash Brook, which he said repeatedly overwhelms underground channels and carries silt into downtown buildings.

The request came during the meeting’s visitors and communications period, where Resident Oliver told councilors the city should seek funds to “stop the water before it comes in,” describing Potash Brook as “a major problem” for downtown drainage and business vitality.

City Manager Nicholas and Councilor Guston said the city had tried to align requests with the state’s Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) guidance, which favored housing projects. Nicholas said the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) advised the city that unengineered mitigation proposals would be unlikely to succeed as construction grants and recommended submitting planning requests first.

“Because of the lack of planning, because we didn't have plans, we didn't have engineering, that would not be a competitive grant,” Nicholas said, describing ACCD feedback to the city’s pre-application.

Guston, who said she had hoped to secure larger funding for Potash Brook and the adjacent Courier Park neighborhood, said engineers working on the river project had identified several non-dam mitigation options including debris catchers, flood-plain expansion and channel rebuilding through Courier Park. She said those ideas were the reason the city moved a portion of its work into the planning grant bucket under CDBG-DR so engineers can develop competitive construction-ready proposals.

Manager Nicholas later reported the city’s consolidated CDBG-DR submission totals and project breakdowns to the council. The packet and oral summary listed a total of $27,500,000 in applications across multiple projects, including $68,000 designated in the set of applications for Potash Brook planning and mitigation work. Other allocations included $10,000,000 for the 355 North Main project, roughly $8,000,000 for the North End project, $5,400,000 for Prospect Heights, $2,800,000 for the Willie Street Bridge, $856,000 for Harrington Avenue, and $268,000 for stormwater projects.

Guston said she expects engineering reports from the awarded planning grants and said the city will pursue hazard-mitigation grant rounds in future cycles if construction funding is not available from this round. Nicholas and Guston encouraged residents to follow the planning process, sign up for updates and provide feedback as engineering work advances.

Ending: Councilors acknowledged the Brook’s role in downtown flooding and described the city’s immediate strategy as funding engineering and planning work under the CDBG-DR program to make the Potash Brook proposals competitive for later construction grants.