Healy administration announces more than $52 million for local flood resilience in Leominster ceremony

Leominster — Governor Healy and her administration onstage in Leominster lauded local emergency responders and announced a new round of municipal resilience funding, saying the state is directing about $52,400,000 in Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grants to projects statewide and expanding resources to help communities recover from the September 2023 floods.

Rebecca Tepper, identified in the transcript as the secretary of energy and environmental affairs, described the MVP program as “community-centric,” emphasizing that action grants move towns from planning into construction. “I have said many times to my team this last year, I’m done with the plans. Let’s just act,” Tepper said, noting this round includes 71 local implementation projects — including 56 individual municipalities, six regional groups and two tribes — and that 24 projects will install physical, on-the-ground solutions. Tepper named several large awards she said are part of the round, including a $5,000,000 grant to the cities of Everett and Chelsea, a $3,000,000 grant to Daylight A Stream in Atholl, and a $1,700,000 grant to the town of Mashpee.

Melissa Hoffer, the state’s climate chief, framed the grants as part of a broader resilience strategy. Recounting the night a heavy storm sent 10 inches of rain over Leominster, Hoffer said she received an emergency alert and stressed the need for nature-based solutions and steep emissions reductions. She noted that the governor’s recently signed budget creates a new disaster response and resilience fund initially capitalized at $14,000,000 to help communities recover and rebuild.

Glenn Eaton, executive director of the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission, said MRPC will document the September 2023 flood for future planning and build community-driven mapping tools and resources to increase long-term resilience.

Leominster’s mayor, identified in the transcript as Dean Maseril, recalled the flood’s emergency calls and thanked state and local responders for rapid assistance. He presented the governor with a token of appreciation and invited grantees to the stage for photographs.

Governor Healy said the administration previously distributed $20,000,000 in relief funds and secured federal disaster assistance for communities affected by the 2023 floods. She described the MVP awards as the largest single round of resilience funding in the state’s history and tied those investments to an administration-wide push to scale climate resilience funding and to center climate in economic development plans.

Senator John Cronin said the Legislature enacted a December 2023 supplemental appropriation of $15,000,000 for flood recovery; he said $3,600,000 from that appropriation will go to Leominster and $1,100,000 to Fitchburg. Representative Natalie Higgins echoed thanks to state and local partners and highlighted the role of these projects in protecting future generations.

What comes next: officials said awarded municipalities and regional partners will move forward with project planning and implementation under the MVP program; grantees and state staff were invited to meet following the ceremony for photos and briefings.

Note on inconsistent transcriptions: the event transcript contains variant spellings of some local names (for example, the mayor’s surname appears inconsistently in the record); the article uses the names as they first appear in the transcript and attributes quotes only to speakers identified in the record.