2 weeks Ago
A plan to mitigate flooding in neighborhoods near North Beach in Hampton was nearly ditched earlier this month when cost estimates for the project came in $2.1 million over budget. But in an 11th-hour move, District 3 Executive Councilor Janet Stevens was able to secure an additional $1.
3 million of funding from the state to save the project. “Pending a light winter, this project will be completed by next summer of 2025,” Stevens said. The extra funding saves more than just time for the flooding-mitigation project — it also saves $2 million.
Of the $2.8 million that the town of Hampton had budgeted for the project, $2 million was allocated from the Department of Environmental Services. If those funds weren’t obligated to a project by the end of the year, they were out the window for the town and likely to be allocated elsewhere.
With enough funding to proceed with the initial steps of the infrastructure plan, Hampton is able to retain the aid. Residents of North Beach have been subject to increasingly persistent floods in recent years, damaging homes and decreasing property values. The project proposes a gravity-fed drainage system with pumps and catch basins to subvert water from the most affected areas.
“Hampton has been hit hard,” Stevens said. “Particularly, there were a few storm surges in January that did a lot of damage.” When Stevens heard that a shortage of funding was going to table the project, she contacted Gov.
Chris Sununu. “He approved the $1.3 million, and there were a few hours where it was an all-out sprint, because this request had to get on the agenda for (the Joint-Fiscal Committee) for their meeting, which would be coming up on Friday, October 18,” Stevens said.
“So we got everything in order, and Joint-Fiscal approved it.” Following approval from the Executive Council at their meeting on Oct. 30 — a formality, according to Stevens — the funds will be ready for hard-hats and shovels.
The project is set to proceed in two parts — the pump station and catch basins will hold off until the second round of the project, the rest of the blueprinted plan is set to go with the new funds, according to Stevens. Stevens said she is glad that residents of flooding-affected neighborhoods will get the infrastructure they need to protect and preserve their homes, especially after the distress some of them felt after hearing during a Board of Selectmen meeting the project might be tabled. “People felt helpless when they got word at that meeting on Oct.
7 that this mitigation problem wasn’t going to happen,” Stevens said. “So there’s a sigh of relief that it’s been salvaged.”.
