NAHANT — The town of Nahant and U.S. Rep Seth Moulton announced that the community will receive a $3.5 million grant to stabilize and restore the dunes along Short Beach.
According to Town Administrator Tony Barletta, the funding comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It is also the largest grant that the town has ever received.
Aside from an appearance from Moulton, Town Administrator Tony Barletta, Selectman Rob Tibbo, and Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Director Dawn Brantley also came to Short Beach to celebrate the milestone, highlighting the progress of the project and their ambitions to revitalize the area.
“This is a very special day for us,” Barletta said. “This is about six or so years in the making, it’s the largest grant in the town’s history, and it’s going to make a load of difference as far as our ability to protect the town and respond to emergencies.”
Selectman Rob Tibbo took a moment to comment on the progress made. “In 2018, Nahant experienced nearly $4 million overall in damages from the March storm. Our hazard mitigation plan was subsequently updated,” Tibbo said. “As a result of the updated plan, the area we are focused on today, the stretch of roadway supported by sand, has become the number one priority.”
Tibbo noted the roadway connects approximately two-thirds of residents to the mainland, and also connects first responders to the people of Nahant. “The grant goes a long way to keeping Nahant residents safe during extreme weather events,” he said.
“It’s a great day for Nahant, for the North Shore, and for all who cherish this beautiful coastline,” Moulton said. “Thanks so much to Tony Barletta, Selectman Tibbo, and all town officials for their unrelenting work on this.”
He continued by underscoring what the funding can achieve. “This grant can save lives because the town is cut off in a storm, Nahant will be stranded from the rest of Massachusetts,” Moulton said. “This is an unacceptable risk to deal with.”
Moulton added that it’s “quite significant” to help bring to life the largest grant ever given to Nahant. “This federal FEMA funding will help reduce the risk of flood damage and coastal erosion along Nahant Road, increase resilience against future sea-level rise, and protect critical infrastructures, homes and businesses in Nahant,” Moulton said. He claimed today’s announcement is a testament to the important local leadership, local state, and federal collaborations, along with patience and persistence.
During his comments, Moulton took a second to compare the situation to the coastal erosion of Salisbury Beach. “This is a completely different scenario,” Moulton said. “We’re not just going to pour sand down and let it get washed away, we’ll be doing a completely different process.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t ignore the fact that President Trump seems ready to freeze future federal funding to critical environmental projects like this one,” Moulton said. “Projects that aren’t just important to our environments, but to our communities.”
“Elon Musk may just view these as items on a spreadsheet that can be struck, but we know there are real people, real lives, real livelihoods dependent on this federal assistance,” Moulton said. He added that after the ceremony, Moulton will be heading back to Washington, D.C., “To make sure no community on the North Shore misses out on funding, because of the political whims of the President.”
State Sen. Brendan Crighton also spoke on the matter. “This is a federal grant, obviously this couldn’t happen without strong collaboration,” he said, citing the numerous moving parts of the project. “I’ve seen storms before, I lived here all my life, but I’ve never seen a storm like the one in March.”
He said that after the storm, he surveyed the area with Nahant police, where he saw how badly the water had overtaken the main road that connects Nahant to the mainland. He said it looked like there were large ponds throughout the town. “We are committed to focusing on coastal resiliency, and here in Massachusetts, we’re not going to shy away from doing that in towns like Nahant.”
Nahant Road is the main roadway that connects “Big Nahant” to “Little Nahant” and the mainland. Should the roadway flood, “Little Nahant” would effectively be cut off from every land-based evacuation route. If that were to happen, residents would also be cut off from the local emergency shelter at Johnson Elementary School, making it harder to reach first responders in the event of a crisis.
The aim of the grant is for the town to stabilize and restore more than half a mile of dunes, where the height would be raised from 14 to 18 feet. The expected outcome will reduce the risk of flood damage, as well as coastal erosion along Nahant Road. It will also increase resilience against future climate-change-related sea-level rise.
The award letter was originally signed on Jan. 17, according to the press release. At the moment, the project is under the control of MEMA, which will develop the necessary agreement for the town to access the funding to restore the dunes.
