Tuesday, November 29, 2011

NY Dept of State Makes Long Term Community Recovery Strategy Grants available

The following is excerpted from the NY State web-site announcing this grant to aid communities in developing and implementing strategies for Long Term Community Recovery:  
http://www.dos.ny.gov/communityprojects/rfa-11-cstl-10/index.html

1.10 Background
Planning for recovery takes time, leadership, resources, and support from community stakeholders. This grant program will augment current efforts to help communities with the most damage and least capacity to develop strategies for long-term recovery.
The resultant long-term recovery strategy will ensure rebuilding that strengthens community vitality, maximizes use of available funds, and reduces future flood related damages. In the wake of the disaster, many of the affected communities have received federal and state assistance, and untold hours of volunteer services to help meet basic shelter, humanitarian and cleanup needs. As communities move beyond the immediate recovery phase of a disaster, long-term community recovery planning can help focus their efforts by establishing a vision for how they will rebuild and reduce their vulnerability to future disasters.


1.20 Funding Availability

The Long-Term Community Recovery (LTCR) Strategy Grant is a competitive grant program to aid a community in developing a strategy for long-term community recovery of the storm-struck area identified in the application. The Department of State (DOS) will make approximately twelve grants of up to $50,000. DOS reserves the right to make additional awards if funds are available. There will be up to two grant rounds based on funding availability.
Round 1 Application Due DateJanuary 12, 2012 by 4:00 pm
Round 2 Application Due DateMarch 1, 2012 by 4:00 pm

CONTACT INFORMATION
General Program Information & Inquiries
Peter Walsh
NYS Department of State
Communities and Waterfronts
One Commerce Plaza
99 Washington Avenue, Suite 1015
Albany, New York 12231
Coastal@dos.state.ny.us
(518) 474-6000
Proposal SubmissionLuAnn Hart, Contract Administration Unit
Attention: RFA 11-CSTL-10
NYS Department of State Bureau of Fiscal Management
One Commerce Plaza, Suite 1110
99 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12231

Documents

Descrpition of program and Request for Applictions:   LTCR RFA (pdf)
LTCR Strategy Application Form (msword)

Governor Cuomo's Storm Task Force Holds Summit to Assess Recovery Efforts

PRESSS RELEASE, STATE OF NY, Nov 28, 2011
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Upstate Storm and Recovery Task Force today held a summit to assess the state's ongoing recovery efforts in response to the damage caused by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. The meeting was held in the Town of Windham and included state agency commissioners, local elected officials, community representatives, and was chaired by Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy.
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Main Street Fund

Up to $3 million has been made available through the New York State Agricultural and Community Recovery Fund to provide money to Main Street businesses in some of the hardest hit areas. This funding is available to be requested by counties on behalf of businesses and building owners to help revitalize local economies. Eligible entities will be able to apply for assistance to, among other things; rehabilitate buildings for commercial and main street residential use, repair and replace permanent fixtures and equipment, as well as for inventory and working capital.

The first round of these awards has been determined with Greene, Schoharie, and Delaware counties each receiving $500,000. The initial funds will go to businesses and building owners in the following municipalities: Greene County: Prattsville, Hunter, Windham, and Catskill; Schoharie County: Middleburgh and Schoharie; Delaware County: Margaretville, Fleischmanns and Sidney. Applications are still being accepted for subsequent rounds of grants in all affected counties, including the three with awards announced today, and awards are expected to be distributed in the near future.
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Department of State's Long-Term Community Recovery Program

The Long Term Community Recovery Program will help towns and villages with technical expertise as they develop recovery strategies and design rebuilding projects to reestablish vibrant communities that are less vulnerable to future flooding. The program will provide financial assistance, up to $50,000 per grant, on a competitive basis. The grants will provide money to hire technical experts, consultants, and fund comprehensive strategic planning for the rebuilding of housing, economic, infrastructure and environmental projects. Applications may be submitted by affected municipalities or by counties or not-for-profits on their behalf. The total amount of grant funds presently available for this program is $789,896. The round 1 application deadline is January 12, 2012 at 4:00 p.m., and the round 2 deadline is March 1, 2012 at 4:00 p.m.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Town may move fire, police departments

November 23rd, 2011, by Mike Eldred, Deerfield Valley News
WILMINTON, VT  Could Wilmington’s flooding disaster become an opportunity to improve town services? Selectboard members began exploring options for municipal and emergency services this week, as part of their post-Irene long-range planning process.

On Friday afternoon, board members held their first discussion on a report produced by their long-range planning committee. Among the topics the committee explored were several options for relocating the municipal offices, the Wilmington Police Department, and the Wilmington Fire Department.

Some of the ideas the board identified for further study include redevelopment or renovation of the current town garage site on Beaver Street as a combined police/fire department building, renovating the current town hall with all municipal offices and records upstairs and meeting or retail space on the first floor, and leasing facilities.

The board also discussed whether it would be possible to build any new facilities. Board member Meg Streeter questioned the wisdom of trying to build new facilities, noting that the new town highway department garage, which is currently under construction, was initially proposed nearly 17 years ago.

“We could never afford it,” added selectboard chair Tom Consolino. “Time is a factor,” said town manager Paul Myers.

But board members agreed that relocating the town’s emergency services out of the flood zone was preferable to the alternative – putting them back in the buildings that flooded in August.

Myers said the police department’s location at town hall was less than optimal. “Their cruisers are parked out on Main Street, there’s limited area to hold someone pending processing, and limited office space. They like this (former Rite Aid) space better than the town office space.”

“The committee felt that going back into that space wasn’t a good idea,” said economic development consultant Bill Colvin, who served on the committee. But Colvin noted that the committee felt the town should avoid a solution that would include a bond vote.

Remainder of article...

The Greening of Greensburg

Posted: 11/21/11 01:31 PM ET, Vicky Collins, Huffington Post
Very early in the morning on May 5, 2007 I got a call from NBC News to hurry from Denver to Greensburg, Kansas. There had been a huge tornado and the town was devastated. Go! Go! When I pulled into the town six hours later I was stunned to see wreckage so complete that even the bark had been pulled off the trees. These skeleton sentinals stood over a community of people who were lost and dazed. The EF-5 tornado had 205 mile per hour sustained winds. Almost the entire town was in ruins. It was apocalyptic.
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Almost five years later I returned to Greensburg, and what I saw was as stunning as that first post-disaster morning. The town is cleaned up and there are beautiful new buildings. The school, the hospital, City Hall and the John Deere dealership are all built back to the highest environmental standard called LEED Platinum. There is a pretty little Main Street with shops and even a business incubator sponsored by Sun Chips. People are living in new eco-friendly homes and are saving up to 2/3 on their utility bills. And there are wind turbines everywhere powering the community. Imagine using the same wind that destroyed you to help resurrect yourself!

Remainder of article...

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Residents get chance to plan redevelopment

Posted: November 27, Timesleader.com
Residents get chance to plan redevelopment
SHICKSHINNY – Borough residents might be wondering just who those people in polo shirts wandering through their community are and why they’re passing out fliers.
     They are the members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Long Term Community Recovery Team, and they’re here to help the town make a comeback, said team leader Shea Christilaw.
     The LTCR team, comprised of municipal planners, is spending the next three months in the borough to help the community shape a new direction as residents and businesses work to recover from Sept. 9 flooding that ravaged nearly all of the town’s homes and all but one of its 28 businesses.
     Shickshinny and Athens, Bradford County, are the only two Pennsylvania communities marked by FEMA to receive long-term recovery assistance following a five-point plan called Heart-and-Soul Community Planning.
“It’s finding out what makes Shickshinny special and using those things and places … to plan for the future,” Christilaw said.
     “We don’t want to lose what gives Shickshinny its character. We want to make sure those special places are preserved and those values are carried through even in the face of change, because things are going to change,” she explained at a recent “story circle” meeting at First United Methodist Church.
     Christilaw said the team will help create a long-term recovery plan.
Many voices
     The process should include everyone: council, business owners and residents. A committee of community members – residents, business owners, senior citizens, students – and a few Luzerne County representatives will help steer the process, she said.
     The Rev. Terry Hughes, pastor of First United Methodist and a steering committee member, said the process is an opportunity “to paint the picture of Shickshinny the way you envision it.”
     “One person says I think Shickshinny should look like this, another person says it should look like that. When you put all of them together, what are the things that are in common? These are the things that we need for Shickshinny for it to feel like home,” Hughes said.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Residents_get_chance_to_plan_redevelopment_11-27-2011.html#ixzz1exBqTvHk

Caption: Shickshinny Mayor Beverly Moore addresses the town’s Long Term Community Recovery Steering Committee in the basement of First United Methodist Church during its first meeting.

Shickshinny on the mend

Posted: November 27
Shickshinny on the mend  
Residents’ spirits high in flooded river town
SHICKSHINNY,PA – Why come back? How many times can you start over?

They’re reasonable questions to ask residents and business owners in a small town with limited resources that has been flooded out numerous times over the last 40 years, the most devastating event this past September.
Clarence Lewis wants to live in a town made special by its sense of community.
“You can’t go to Philadelphia, you can’t go to Allentown, you can’t go to Wilkes-Barre as we know it and sit down in the coffee shop and talk to the baker or the people who own it and say, ‘We want a doughnut named Flood Mud.’ … And the next thing you know, everybody is coming in asking for those things. It’s the (sense of) family that’s coming out,” Lewis said.
Pizza shop owner Jim Houseknecht likes that the town is small and safe, yet busy enough to support his livelihood.



The answers are a little different for everyone, but they follow a common theme – a strong thread that seems to weave through this river town community, reinforcing it to withstand a disaster that inflicted millions of dollars in damage to nearly all of the town’s 430 housing units and all but one of its 28 businesses and might otherwise have torn it apart.
The mayor of the borough of 838 residents seems to have a good grasp on what makes the town special and worth saving as well as why so many of her constituents wish to remain and are determined to see it thrive once again.
“We could have a fire that devastates the town. We could have sinkholes open up. For the love of God, we had an earthquake. You have to deal with it. There is no absolute safe place. So why would you not be where you feel you’re the happiest?” Mayor Beverly Moore said in a recent interview.
“I love this town. Everybody here knows just about everybody else. You know the people in the stores. It’s a great little place. It’s like a little secret. Just the traffic alone here could support our businesses,” she said.

Learning from history

The recent flood? She labels it an inconvenience.
“We’ve been through flooding before. Did we have a good flood plan? Absolutely. Did this last flood screw it up for me? Yup.
“But we go out as soon as we hear from (the emergency management agency), everybody starts moving their stuff, we don’t have anything hysterical going on. They all know they have to move it. You know at that point the chances are you’re going to have to replace your flooring, some of your walls,” Moore said.
She said it wouldn’t be feasible to raise up every home and business eight feet so they’re out of the flood zone. “And at the same time, I don’t think my town should become a ghost town because of it.”
Moore said Shickshinny will prepare a flood plan based on the most recent flooding that likely will address an even higher crest than the record 42.6 feet the Susquehanna River reached on Sept. 9.
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Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Shickshinny_on_the_mend_11-27-2011.html#ixzz1ex5BtDtr