NORWOOD – General Manager Tony Mazzucco is pleased to announce that the Town of Norwood has been awarded grant funding to support climate change resilience.
The Town of Norwood was awarded $432,000 through the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Grant program, which offers financial resources to municipalities that are seeking to address effects resulting from extreme weather, sea level rise, inland and coastal flooding, severe heat and other climate impacts.
This is the second year that the Town of Norwood has received this grant.
Grant funds will be used to develop design plans for the installation of a stormwater detention basin at Hennessey Field. The new stormwater detention basin will not only reduce flooding, but also provide accessible walking trails, a pollinator habitat, and additional daylighting for the historic Meadow Brook to flow above ground.
The need for the basin was first identified by the town in a report published in 2004. The need for the basin was highlighted again in June 2020, following a storm that destroyed Norwood Hospital and caused significant damage to many other businesses and homes.
“This is a long desired and necessary project and we are incredibly thankful to the Driscoll-Healey Administration and the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program that we are once again receiving this grant funding,” said General Manager Mazzucco.
The completion of the basin project is necessary before any further upgrades to stormwater infrastructure in Norwood Center and the rest of the Meadow Brook Watershed are made. Widening stormwater pipes without developing additional storage capacity would result in increased downstream flooding.
Additionally, Norwood is participating in the Neponset River Watershed Regional Adaptation Strategy and Flood Model Project, led by the Neponset River Watershed Association, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and Town of Dedham to conduct modeling and outreach to study flood modeling throughout the Neponset River Watershed and develop recommendations for regional flood adaptations.
The MVP program was created in 2017 by Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration to provide communities with funding and technical support to identify climate hazards, develop strategies to improve resilience, and implement priority actions to adapt to climate change.
MVP Grants fund projects that are focused on proactive strategies to address climate change impacts and may include retrofitting and adapting infrastructure, detailed vulnerability assessments or design and engineering studies, stormwater upgrades, dam retrofits and removals, culvert upgrades, drought mitigation, actions to protect environmental justice communities and improve public health, energy resilience, mosquito control initiatives and implementing nature-based solutions such as wetland restoration and floodplain protection.
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