Greetings,

As you may be aware, on October 19, 2021, the Board of Selectmen voted to accept and approve an Environmental Hazard Mitigation Project proposal that was submitted to them by this office. The purpose of this proposal is to establish a multi-phase project consisting of an environmental hazard vulnerability assessment followed by implementing mitigation strategies and physical protective measures that will protect the health and safety of persons and property.

With the focal point of our Town being the Hamilton Reservoir and with the vast amount of ponds, rivers, streams, trails, and other unique ecological systems within our community, we must take a proactive approach in prioritizing the preservation of our environment. Our overall goal is to adopt procedures that center on the protection, restoration, and management of our ecological systems to safeguard public health, provide clean air and water, increase natural hazard resilience, and sequester toxic and carbon emissions.

As part of this project, on November 5, 2021, we applied for funding through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, EEA, MVP Planning Grant to engage with a state-certified provider that will assist us in identifying infrastructural, societal, and environmental vulnerabilities. Some of you may recall that I distributed a letter on October 20, 2021, soliciting written support for the Grant.

By evaluating strengths that help make the community more resilient to natural hazards we can explore nature-based solutions to address identified vulnerabilities, develop and prioritize actions, and delineate subsequent steps for the protection of our municipality. On January 24, 2022, we were notified that we received the grant in the amount of $27,000. After completing the planning phase we will be eligible for funding opportunities to invest in priorities that build resilience by physically implementing the priority actions that we identified.

Below I have provided a link to a publicly accessible document that is the most recent version of the Environmental Hazard Mitigation Project. I encourage you to review this document so you have a comprehensive understanding of the basic principles of the project. Please note that the document has been intentionally formatted with the expectation of modifications being made and was last modified on February 11, 2022. Unfortunately, the file size with all the attachments exceeds the allowable limits to transmit via email so I had to split the document.

 environmental_hazard_mitigation_project_preliminary_proposal_final_2_all_public_0.pdf (holland.ma.us)

One of the requirements of the Planning Grant, (which is phase 1 of the project), is that the Town establishes a (core team) of individuals to work with the state-certified provider. The municipality must provide sufficient staff time (estimated at 120-200 hours) to assure the completion of planning and community engagement. I have attached to this correspondence a document that provides a brief outline of the municipal staff commitments that the team will be responsible for. As you will see, we will first need to select the state-certified provider. As a part of the project, the provider will be updating our local hazard mitigation plan LHMP as well.

I am reaching out to pertinent stakeholders, including municipal personnel, seeking assistance from you in establishing the (core team) to satisfy the municipal staff commitment requirements. The state has trained over 400 vendors and they encourage considering at least 3 different potential candidates. Our first step will be to meet and review the list of authorized providers, choose candidates, and ultimately procure a provider.  I would like to schedule a meeting for the first week in March with approximately 5 individuals to complete this task. Ideally, I would like to schedule this meeting on a weekday and during the day. After we procure the provider will need to arrange a broader team of individuals to carry out the appropriate obligations with them.

I am asking that you please reply if you are interested in participating and then we can arrange the meeting details. We are under a time constraint to accomplish some of the required tasks so we need to expedite the process and establish some semblance of a core team to choose a provider as soon as possible. Once we establish the team I can provide the members with the list of certified providers to review prior to the meeting. The funding only allows for payment to the provider and not extra pay for the municipal personnel.

I would like to thank you all in advance and look forward to hearing back from you.

Respectfully,

___________________________

Bryan C. Haughey

Chief of Police

Holland Police Department

27 Sturbridge Rd

Holland, MA 01521

 

Email: bhaughey@hollandma.org

 

Voicemail:  413-245-0117 ext: 330

Dispatch:    413-245-7222

Fax:             413-245-4482

 

 

Webpage: https://town.holland.ma.us/holland-police-department

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollandMAPD/

 

Twitter: @HollandMAPD

 

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