U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton will visit Saugus on Monday to discuss with town officials funding for a proposed floodgate project on the Saugus River.
Moulton will meet with Town Manager Scott Crabtree, members of the Board of Selectmen, and local state representatives to talk about the project, which gained renewed urgency following significant flooding in Saugus after a Jan. 13 storm.
“The congressman’s visit is in response to the floodgate project letter that the selectmen sent to both the federal and state delegation,” Board of Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta said. “I met with his regional director, Tom Arsenault, yesterday to discuss some of the main issues in Saugus, which included the terrible flooding we recently experienced in Precinct 10. We also discussed the flooding at the Hamilton Street bridge.”
Panetta added that she and Precinct 10 Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian, who represents one of the areas of Saugus that was most impacted by the flooding, showed Arsenault streets in town that had been affected by the flooding and introduced him to a business owner who had been significantly impacted as well.
Sydney Simon, Moulton’s communications director, said that the meeting will feature a discussion on funding sources for the floodgate project.
“We recognize the serious challenges that climate change is posing to Massachusetts when it comes to preparing for coastal storms, mitigating flooding, and protecting communities. The Regional Saugus River Floodgate Project stands to help several of our cities and towns – Revere, Lynn, Saugus, Malden, Everett – do just that,” Moulton and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey said in a statement. “Army Corps of Engineers studies like this one require both federal funding and a 50% non-federal match. We look forward to working with our partners in federal, state, and municipal government to help secure necessary funding at all levels to advance this project.”
Fifty percent of the funding for the project would come from the federal government, 25% would come from the state, and 5% would come from each of the five affected communities.
At the beginning of February, the Board of Selectmen voted to send a letter to Moulton, Warren, Markey, state Reps. Donald Wong and Jessica Giannino, and state Sen. Brendan Crighton calling for funding for a study to investigate the potential for construction of the Saugus River floodgate project.
At a January meeting of the board, Manoogian said 6,000 structures were affected by the flooding.
The floodgate project has been considered since the 1980s, when the Army Corps of Engineers proposed it as a solution to flooding in the area.
