OXFORD — The Town of Oxford has been awarded two grants from the federal government.
At a Commissioners of Oxford meeting Tuesday evening, Town Manager Cheryl Lewis detailed what those grants are and what the town knows about the awards so far.
“This is exciting because we’ve never been in the federal budget,” she said.
During Lewis’ explanation of the grants, Commission President Tom Costigan turned to the residents in the room.
“I hope you all appreciate just how gigantic this is,” he said, which was followed by applause.
The first federal grant of $2.6 million is for the elevation of 14 Oxford homes. Lewis said the town had spent time looking for interested residents, and it found 14 who were “willing to sign on the dotted line.”
Those 14 residents agreed to committing 10% of the cost for their home to be elevated, Lewis said. The other 90% of the cost will be paid by the federal government. Lewis said one of those 14 homes is currently being elevated.
Although she is not yet sure of exactly how this process will go, Lewis said she knows the money will go from the Federal Emergency Management Agency through the Maryland Department of Emergency Management.
The town was also awarded $143,000 to go towards the cost of doing these elevations to the town, Lewis said.
“Until we get some detail, (we) don’t know how that exactly works,” she said. “But that was the notice.”
Lewis said the town hasn’t been contacted by anyone from the federal government yet regarding this grant award. She said someone pulled out the line items from the budget and sent it to the town.
Costigan asked if there is a time limit on elevating the homes and spending the grant money.
Lewis said the government says to spend it in a year, but added that the town requested getting three years to spend the money in its grant request.
The second federal grant the town is receiving is for sea level rise adaption efforts. Lewis said $1.06 million will be put toward building the Eastern Shore’s capacity “to plan and mitigate impacts of coastal flooding and tidal inundation.”
Specifically, it will increase the capacity of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s research in addressing sea level rise. Lewis said there will be two scientists at the NOAA lab in Oxford working on this, as well as a liaison specialist for the Town of Oxford and a liaison specialist for the broader Eastern Shore.
Lewis said that this project aims to help other Eastern Shore communities, too.
“The idea is to take what we do discover and what we are able to do here and carry it to places that don’t have the ability,” she said.
Costigan asked if this means Oxford will become the “epicenter” of sea level rise studies on the Eastern Shore.
“You know, it’s $1 million for that purpose alone,” Lewis responded.
Lewis said this project will also study the town’s living shorelines. She is hopeful Oxford will receive a tidal gauge as part of the project.
“It is written into this grant, so we have high hopes,” she said about the tidal gauge.
Lewis is still unsure of exactly how this grant will be handled, but said she assumes the town will need to pay the invoices and get reimbursed by the federal government.
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