MVP Grant

Royalston MVP Planning Grant

In July of 2019 Royalston received a $36,727 grant to develop a Municipal Vulnerabilities Preparedness plan.  This program is part of a larger set of programs designed to make Massachusetts more resilient in the face of a changing climate.  This award will permit Royalston to do a complete vulnerability assessment of both the already known risks that are likely to be acerbated by climate change as well as potential new risks to the town as a direct result of climate change.  Communities that complete this work and develop an accepted MVP Plan will then be certified as an MVP Community and are eligible for future MVP Action Grants that will allow us to address these risks.

The kind of work this program requires fits closely with work already done by most emergency management departments known as Hazard Mitigation Planning.  Recognizing the potential for synergy the REMA application requested a larger grant than the standard in order to also upgrade our existing Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) so this existing plan could be improved by the inclusion of new climate change data.

This dual project will be coordinated by the Royalston Emergency Management Agency as part of its mitigation role.  Tighe & Bond, known for excellence in environmental consulting services, has been engaged to facilitate this effort.