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Barre City outlines priorities to spend $900,000 flood‑elevation award on clustered homes
Summary
Staff recommended using state award money to elevate four closely clustered homes (Berlin, Vine and River streets) as a first tier; councilors urged exploring loans or other funds to stretch the program to help more households.
City staff told the Barre City Council on Jan. 7 that the city has been notified of a $900,000 award from the state to elevate residential flood‑prone houses and asked the council to approve initial priorities.
Manager Nicholas Mackenzie said program rules cap individual projects at $300,000 and that staff narrowed 13 initial expressions of interest down to nine eligible properties; four clustered properties on Berlin Street, Vine Street and one on River Street rose to the top of the staff ranking. "Barre City was notified of a $900,000 award under this program," Mackenzie said, and staff recommended contacting the four property owners first.
Why it matters: Elevation reduces flood risk to occupants, can lower or eliminate flood insurance, and preserves housing stock in affected neighborhoods. The city must balance maximizing the number of households helped against the program cap per property and unknown engineering costs.
Council discussion focused on stretching the available funds to help more homeowners while preserving complete elevations for selected properties. Councilor Deering asked whether owners who require less than a full award could free remaining dollars for other properties; Mackenzie said the city has flexibility within the funding so long as each approved project does not exceed the $300,000 cap.
Councilor Guston suggested pairing the state award with other local financing — for example, the recently created revolving loan fund administered by a local partner — so the city might assist five or six homes instead of four. Councilors also raised practical limits: detailed engineering and permitting will be required before final scopes and costs are known, and the Agency of Natural Resources had already disqualified one applicant (a property in the floodway) from eligibility.
Mackenzie said staff will begin outreach to the four prioritized homeowners and continue to explore whether a combination of awards, loans and other resources could extend assistance to additional eligible households.
Ending: Council members supported moving the prioritized outreach forward while asking staff to test financing permutations that might expand the number of homes served; no final binding allocation beyond contacting prioritized owners was approved at the Jan. 7 meeting.
