Josh Saxton, left, and Chris Hole, owner of Henry Allen’s Seafood in Harpswell, repairing a wharf in April after it was damaged by a series of powerful storms in January. Hole received a $400,000 grant from the state for repairs. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Dozens of Maine’s maritime businesses are set to receive more than $21 million in disaster relief to repair damage caused by a series of intense winter storms that decimated the state’s working waterfronts.

Gov. Janet Mills announced on Monday that 68 Maine working waterfronts will receive $21.2 million in grants from the Working Waterfront Resilience Grant program.

The money will help businesses reconstruct and improve damaged piers, rebuild and restore support buildings like bait sheds, and repair and upgrade fuel and electrical systems.

Awards spanned the coast from Kittery to Eastport, ranging from $6,650 for Emmons Lobster in Kennebunkport to $2 million for the town of Rockport and several wharves in Portland.

“Working waterfronts are a cornerstone of our coastal communities and our economy, and last winter’s devastating storm demonstrated just how vulnerable they are to extreme weather and climate change,” Mills said in a statement. “These grants will help rebuild working waterfronts so they are able to better withstand future storms, protecting access to the water now and for generations to come.”

Back-to-back January storms unleashed heavy rain, flooding, ocean swells, high tides and wind gusts of up to 60 mph that ripped away entire wharves and scattered fishing equipment and gear across harbors. Some experts estimate the storms caused over $70 million worth of damage. Pat Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said that in some places it looked like a bomb had gone off.

President Biden issued a “Major Disaster Declaration” for the eight coastal communities impacted by the two storms.

Linda Vannah, manager of the New Harbor Co-op, said the business had to replace both docks after the storms destroyed pilings, snapped fuel lines, left the office with no support structure and damaged the electrical wiring and the freezer. The co-op received about $516,000.

“These funds will help rebuild the docks higher by up to 2 feet, repair the wiring, replace our freezer and move the office to a safer location,” she said. “With these repairs, we should be able to withstand the more intense storms we’re seeing and continue to serve the fishermen who depend on us.”

The infusion of cash is desperately needed and securing the money in the first place was a “Herculean effort,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fisherman’s Association. But there’s still a lot of work to be done and it’s hard to find a “one-size fits all” solution.

To maximize the program’s effectiveness, eligible projects had to include “critical working waterfront infrastructure” that served at least 10 commercial fishermen or aquaculturists, Mills’ administration said in a statement.

Applicants were required to provide a 1:1 financial match toward the cost of the work. Awards were capped at $2 million.

Officials reviewed 80 applications.

The association worked with fishermen to fill out the applications and Martens said it became clear that the 1:1 match and the 10-boat minimum were hurdles for some.

The Port Clyde Fisherman’s Co-op, for example, sustained extensive damage and lost a lot of equipment but only received about $86,000.

“That’s partially because of the match requirement,” Martens said. “They cannot take out a bank loan because they cannot afford (bank-required) flood insurance on that property and afford to pay back the loan.”

Instead, they’ve had to put in “sweat equity” and rally the community to help them rebuild, he said.

“These communities are still struggling … to figure out what their futures look like when they’re relying on infrastructure that is so at risk,” he said.

Crews work on Chipman’s Wharf in Milbridge after the first storm in January. Jeff Nichols/Maine Department of Marine Resources

The match isn’t a bad idea – it’s essentially a 50% reimbursement – but it’s likely that many businesses requested far less than what they needed because it was all they could afford, Martens said.

The minimum size also was a challenge. The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association raised $200,000 and distributed 43 $5,000 grants to fishermen whose wharves were too small to qualify.

MORE AID NEEDED

“Ultimately, there’s still millions and millions and millions of dollars of losses on our working waterfront, and it means many of these are not going to be built back to the standards they should be,” he said.

Repairing the wharves as quickly and affordably as possible could be a problem for future storms, and Keliher, the DMR commissioner, said the waterfront is both critical and vulnerable.

“With commercial access already so limited, it is imperative that we protect these properties from climate-driven events and safeguard an industry that is so important to our state’s economic future,” he said.

The resilience grant program had $25 million available for working waterfront recovery but eligible applicants only requested a total of $21.2 million, said Jeff Nichols, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The administration is still working out how to allocate the remaining $3.8 million.

The Maine Department of Transportation is administering a program for working waterfront resiliency through the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund that will provide money for significant infrastructure repair. Some applicants for that program might be a good fit for the remaining funds, Nichols said.

Sen. Susan Collins also secured $10 million for the waterfronts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget, and Nichols said Maine officials will evaluate the possibility to combining the two funding sources to establish another waterfront resiliency program.