LIVERMORE FALLS — At the July 16 Select Board meeting, Town Manager Carrie Castonguay was directed to work on a state grant funding opportunity.

The Community Resiliency Partnership [CRP] has been funded in the supplemental budget, Zach Gosselin, sustainability coordinator for Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments [AVCOG]. said. AVCOG works as a service provider, can help towns enroll in the Community Resiliency Partnership to receive funding for projects, he noted.

“This started with the Maine Climate Action Plan which identifies certain strategy areas that the Maine Climate Council deemed fit for this program,” Gosselin said. He shared a list of  49 Community Action grant awardees which included 53 towns receiving between $15,000 and $50,000 per town.

“Those are 72 different project areas that the state deemed eligible for no match funding,” Gosselin said of those awardees. “This past go round $5 million was put back into the CRP and over 200 communities statewide are working in the CRP. There are multiple avenues for funding … directly to communities.”

This past year a Maine Department of Transportation grant program was implemented specifically for communities that are enrolled in CRP looking to further their resiliency work, Gosselin stated.

“As a service provider, we want to help you get enrolled in the partnership, help draft documents and things like that as well as help you write your first grant,” he noted. He said he would be working with a town designee to consider projects to implement.

CRP requires two self evaluations and holding a public meeting to receive feedback, Gosselin stated. “The evaluation shares what your community is doing well, areas that can be improved in the short term, etc.,” he noted. “Those are the kind of questions that will guide the community from the workshop.”

There are a wide variety of potential projects from heat pump installation to environmental assessments to increasing the overall building envelope and window upgrades, Gosselin shared.

Gosselin said part of the effort is to minimize risk and exposure to hazards, things pretty standard in an emergency management plan. It would be specifically targeted towards Livermore Falls, he stated.

Gosselin would include ideas from the community meeting in the final draft of the grant application. The document required by the state to enroll looks at the vulnerabilities in the town, things it is doing well to address those issues, he noted.

Also required is a resolution with specific language adopted by the town, Gosselin stated.

Chair William Kenniston asked if there were any strings attached. penalties for not following everything to a T.

There is nothing connecting the town to any requirements, Gosselin said. Quarterly reporting is needed and Gosselin indicated he would help with that.

“There is a $125,000 no match grant if you work with two or more communities,” he noted. “Livermore and Jay are both involved in the partnership. If there was a project you were looking to collaborate with them on, maybe for mitigation, things like that, that could also be a funding source. I worked with Shiloh [LaFreniere, town manager] on their grant in Jay.”

Gosselin said the grant could be as simple as planting trees or writing a new ordinance.

Castonguay said window replacements in the town office is something she has been considering. “We lose a ridiculous amount of energy,” she noted. The building is too big to put heat pumps in with the $50,000 available in grant funding, she stated. She would like something more efficient for heating and cooling the building, doesn’t know what that might be. Another option is LED lighting, she added.

Windows can be funded, Gosselin noted. He could help look for other funding opportunities to support resiliency work.

Selectman Bruce Peary was told some improvements being discussed for the Police Department would not come under this program, although LED lighting would.

Grant applications were last due in March with funds finalized in June, Gosselin said. He anticipates a September to October timeline for the next grants to be released.

Gosselin would like to have everything done before then to make sure everything is good. He suggested holding the public meeting in late August, early September. He would create all marketing materials for that meeting to explain everything.

“Community engagement is one of the big pieces of it,” he stressed. “The resolution can be passed at any time.”

The date of the meeting and project ideas can be included in the resolution, Gosselin noted.

“I think this is something we should pursue,” Selectman Jim Long said. He asked Castonguay for her opinion.

“Free money is good money,” she replied.