Winthrop MVP Grant Requests Denied by State

Last week, Governor Maura Healey announced over $54 million in Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Grants (MVP) for more than 60 communities in the state, including Chelsea, Everett, Revere, and East Boston.

However, Winthrop’s two MVP grant requests to help fund flooding and stormwater mitigation planning efforts were not included in that windfall.

“We did get notification that our two applications put before the state for MVP grants were not approved,” said Town Manager Tony Marino. “We had one for $1.2 million approximately for Morton and Banks, and the second one for a little over $400,000 for the Pico Ave area to do some studies over there.”

MVP grants offer financial resources to communities that are seeking to advance priority climate adaptation actions to address climate change impacts resulting from extreme weather, sea level rise, inland and coastal flooding, severe heat, and other climate impacts, according to the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs website.

Marino said the town did some digging, along with the help of state Representative Jeff Turco, to find out why the grant applications were not approved.

“They had some concerns, they said to Rep. Turco that maybe we should have finetuned the ask we were looking for,” said Marino.

The town manager said there were several options for potential mitigation projects laid out in the applications.

“We let them know which way we were leaning, as far as the earth berm and trying to protect the coastline, but that is what they told him,” said Marino. “I did request a meeting with them … to find out exactly why and what those concerns were. I was on those calls and I can’t recall them being that totally cautious, but they also say they get a high volume of requests for money and they couldn’t appropriate everybody.”

Town Council President Jim Letterie said the denial of the MVP grants was disappointing.

“I’m not accusing anyone of anything, but it smells very political to me,” said Letterie. “Revere would get one-year funding for the same project we are looking for and Boston also.”

While Winthrop continues to debate the merits of the MBTA 3A Communities Act zoning, Letterie noted that Revere has passed a 3A plan and Boston is not required to approve a plan.

“It’s discouraging there, but take it for what it is worth,” said Letterie.