Posted on September 28, 2017
By Kathryn Gallerani, Wicked Local Kingston
Additional state funding for coastal dredging projects could potentially help Kingston.
Acting Selectmen Chairman Elaine Fiore said Tuesday night that small coastal towns like Kingston could benefit from more money for coastal dredging projects based on a recent meeting with Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash.
Officials and harbormasters from coastal towns large and small met with Ash in August for a meeting on the impacts of dredging on coastal towns. Fiore attended, and said the challenge small ports face when going up against larger ports for funding was addressed at that meeting.
She said larger projects would compete against other larger projects, and smaller projects would compete against other small projects, potentially resurrecting Kingston’s stalled dredging plans.
“Kingston would have a better opportunity of getting dredging money because we would only be competing against our size ports rather than the bigger ports,” she said.
If there were to be such a program, a certain portion would be funded by the state, with the towns required to make up the difference, she said. The town would need to make a commitment in the form of establishing a waterways improvement fund.
Those improvements would be specific to the harbor or coastal area. Fiore said she was encouraged by the conversation but that Ash would not specify a funding percentage, although at one point he mentioned a 50-50 split. There has been talk in Kingston for years about the dredging of Kingston Bay.
Ash is in charge of the state’s development activities for the Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito administration.
Source: Wicked Local Kingston
