Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness: Update from the Working Group

West Newbury has been awarded a $25,000 grant to participate in the Commonwealth’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program (MVP), supporting the Town's efforts to begin the process of planning for climate change resiliency and implementing priority projects. In this fiscal year we will be holding interviews with key stakeholders, reviewing data, conducting in-depth workshops, and taking other steps to complete a vulnerability assessment and develop an action-oriented resiliency plan. Communities who complete the MVP program become certified as an MVP community and are eligible for MVP Action grant funding and other opportunities.

After reviewing consultants’ proposals, the MVP Core Team has recommended selection of Horsley Witten Group, an environmental and engineering consulting firm that provides specialized consulting in such areas as emergency preparedness and response, hazard mitigation planning, sustainable development techniques, coastal and water shed protection, as the state-certified MVP provider to guide us through this process. 

Considering that past is prologue (and at the same time recognizing that climate change is truly unprecedented), the MVP Core Team researched major weather events in West Newbury over the centuries. Click here to learn where in Town the Merrimack jumps its bank to create a new channel in major floods, how Pipestave Hill has had a propensity toward landslides onto Main Street, and why the Newburyport Daily News reported that “the gravest threat to health and the safety of property in [Newburyport’s] history” occurred here in West Newbury.