Salem Awarded $320,861 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Grant

Funds will support sustainability and resiliency projects downtown, at Gallows Hill Park, and at Bertram Field
climate

The City of Salem has been awarded a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Grant in the amount of $320,861 from the Commonwealth in order to complete resiliency projects at Gallows Hill Park, Bertram Field, and to plant additional new street trees downtown.

Salem’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant will fund these three separate, but related, projects. All three promote installation of green infrastructure, installation of permeable pavements, and urban forestry, three priority actions identified in the City's Climate Change Adaptation Plan.

Downtown Street Trees

MVP action grant funding will allow the City to plant trees in the existing empty pits and to install permeable pavement over the tree pits to allow for infiltration. This project will reduce flooding and the heat island effect in busy downtown areas, making this area more accessible year-round to residents and visitors, including many children and seniors. This project will be completed in spring 2020.

Gallows Hill Park

MVP grant funding will allow the City to manage stormwater at Gallows Hill Park in a sustainable manner through pervious pavement, the addition of trees, and construction of a raingarden or bio-infiltration structure, as well as educational signage describing these features. Work at the park will take place in fall 2019 and spring 2020.

Bertram Field

We are working to complete upgrades to Bertram Field that will provide a new athletics and amenities building and a new entrance area for improved vehicular/pedestrian circulation.  This is an ideal location for the use of green infrastructure as it would significantly reduce drainage from an existing impervious surface, which drains downhill to both the North and South Rivers, increasing flooding downstream. The project has already incorporated other sustainability features: it is being designed as zero net energy, will incorporate educational information about sustainable features, and will meet LEED criteria. Adding permeable pavement, incorporating a new stormwater drainage system, and adding additional tree pits, all funded by the MVP grant, will allow project meet the priority climate adaptation priorities.  The full renovation is expected to be complete by fall 2020.

Find out more at https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-awards-12-million-to-municipalities-to-prepare-for-climate-change.