Sustainable Communities Designation Renewal
The City of Crisfield held the first meeting in the process of renewing its Sustainable Communities designation on April 20, 2023. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s Sustainable Communities Program is a place-based designation offering a comprehensive package of resources that support holistic strategies for community development, revitalization and sustainability. Sustainable Communities has provided local governments with a framework for promoting environmentally, economically and socially responsible growth and development in existing older communities. Crisfield has been a recipient of several grants that are only available to designated Sustainable Communities, including the current Façade grant funding.
Renewals for this program are required every five years, with Crisfield’s renewal due in August of 2023. The City is grateful to Tracey Gordey, Director and Keith Lackie, Regional Planner of the Lower Eastern Shore Regional Office Maryland Department of Planning for leading this process with a group of participants designated by the City including representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield Heritage Foundation, McCready Hospital, Sherwin Williams, Somerset County Economic Development, Crisfield Arts & Entertainment District Project, City of Crisfield and the Greater Crisfield Action Coalition. Committee members will meet every two weeks on Thursdays at 1 pm at the Corbin Studio & Gallery, 4 E Main Street, with the next meeting taking place May 4th. These are open meetings and community members are welcome to observe.
Climate Resilience and Flooding Mitigation Projects
The City of Crisfield is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) BRIC DTA gives full support to communities that may not have the resources to begin climate resilience planning and project solution design on their own. The City anticipates submitting a BRIC grant for infrastructure that will mitigate flooding in January 2024 and is working with DTA to identify the best use of these potential funds. The most likely project is an improvement to the ditch system that serves as stormwater infrastructure. Applications for these projects may be for up to $50 million.
Crisfield has also applied for matching funds for this potential project through the Maryland Department of Emergency Management Resilient Maryland Revolving Loan Fund for 1% loans for match for the potential Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) funds for the potential 2024 BRIC stormwater infrastructure applications. Crisfield has applied for these loans as this is the best rate that will be available for a loan to match any potential grant. The maximum project application for BRIC is $50 million. If the City were to apply for the maximum amount of grant funding, the 10% match is $5 million. The amount of funding actually accepted by the City, were the loan to be approved, would be proportional to the actual amount of any FEMA BRIC grant. Crisfield has also applied for matching funds for the City Dock, which will be addressed below. A decision on these awards is anticipated in late summer.
Crisfield is also participating in a Climate Resilience Evaluation Tool (CREAT) Building Regional Water Utility Resilience project along with the Town of Chesapeake Beach and Cambridge. CREAT is an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tool that assists water sector utilities in assessing climate-related risks to utility assets and operations. With the assistance of EPA and Cadmus staff, the City of Crisfield completed a Cost-Benefit Analysis for the South Somerset Avenue to Woodson School Road Drainage System asset, with several economic consequence categories related to floods. Potential adaptive measures included performing maintenance on the ditch system, enclosing the system by replacing the ditches with drainage pipes, or a combination of enclosing the system and protecting the town with a berm or similar structure. Preliminary numbers showed the estimated cost of improved ditch maintenance to be $200,000 per year, including staffing and annualized equipment costs.
On April 12 the CREAT staff provided a presentation to the Mayor & City Council that is available through the City’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/crisfieldcityhall. On May 31 Mayor Darlene Taylor and Grant Administrator Jen Merritt will participate in a workshop in Crownsville, with presentations for agencies that may be able fund projects related to stormwater projects.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is partnering with George Mason University (GMU), the University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center (EFC), and the EPA Office of Research and Development (EPA ORD) to bring flood adaptation support to Crisfield. Funding for this project comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Adaptation Science Program and Lockheed Martin. The project is conducting an assessment of flood adaptation strategies to evaluate their costs and benefits for flood protection and community development goals. TNC is working with a fifteen member Citizen’s Advisory Committee to refine the team’s assessment approach and provide feedback on project recommendations. The goal is to provide City decision-makers with recommended adaptation approaches that support ongoing and future flood mitigation and planning efforts. The City of Crisfield meets monthly with partner members. The project will also explore financing and policy options to implement recommended strategies.
On Saturday May 6th at 3:00pm TNC, GMU, EFC, and EPA ORD will host a community meeting at the Crisfield Library, 100 Collins Street in Crisfield. This meeting will provide the community with an overview of the TNC project activities to date, as well an opportunity for the community to ask questions and find out how to get more involved.
The City staff are also working closely with GMU to provide information on locations of tide gates, to give input needed for GMU’s work modeling potential mitigation projects. The tide gate locations for this project will complement the ditch mapping project addressed below.
The City of Crisfield is in the early stages of working with staff from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to research options for nature-based solutions including marsh restoration. No locations or methods have been identified yet. Crisfield is surrounded by marshes which provide benefits including critical protection from storm surge.
Ditch Mapping Project
Beginning in April, the City of Crisfield will also begin working on a ditch mapping project with the Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative (ESRGC). The ESRGC is an outreach entity of Salisbury University and is a joint effort between the Mid-Shore Regional Council, the Tri-County Council of the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Upper Shore Regional Council and the University. Mapping of existing ditches is one of the steps necessary to completing a ditch maintenance plan for Crisfield. This project will result in mapping that will identify the locations of ditches throughout the community enabling the City to conduct work to improve flow in the ditches, which serve as the stormwater system. The ESRGC will be using new Eastern Shore imagery, captured in 2022 by the State, for this project. This project is supported by Rural Maryland Prosperity Investment Funds through the Rural Maryland Council and the Tri-County Council of the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Tide gates and Stormwater Pumping Stations
The City of Crisfield has grant funding dedicated to installing 11 tide gates and two stormwater pumping stations. This includes $1,379,474 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds combined with 10% match and $92,274 remaining in Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) funds.
The tide gates are proposed to be placed at the following locations: Lorie Quinn Drive, Wynfall Avenue, Tawes Drive, 7th Street, Woodson School, Somerset Ave extended, Village Drive, Charlotte Avenue, Cove Street, Broad Street (Lumber), and Broad Street & 9th Street. Please note that Cove Street replaces Broad Street & West Street.
Stormwater pumping stations will be located at Broadway & 8th and the Norris Harbor Drive intersection with Gerald Ditch.
A Request for Proposals for engineering has been released and is available on the City of Crisfield website at cityofcrisfield-md.gov. Bids will be accepted until June 1, 2023.
The City will apply for additional funding for flooding mitigation through the BRIC grant mentioned above as additional solutions are identified.
Wastewater Pumping Stations and Pipe Lining
Crisfield has the following wastewater projects underway:
- Inflow and Infiltration (I & I). I & I involves cleaning, televising, and lining sewer pipes as needed to repair pipes that have become porous and are allowing too much ground water to enter, impacting the processing of sewage at the City’s wastewater treatment plant. This project is being completed by the contractor Standard Pipe Services out of Newark, Delaware. This project is 90% complete and MDE will be allowing additional funds to be used for additional investigation and cleaning related to past sanitary sewer overflows. This project is funded by MDE & the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) loans and forgivable loans for a total of $684,252. This phase is expected to be complete by August 2023.
- Replacement of wastewater pumps at Cove Street, Rubberset, and Jersey Island. The City has three wastewater pump stations located; Cove Street, Rubberset (Sherwin Williams building) and Jersey Island (Norris Harbor Drive). The pumping stations at Cove Street and Rubberset are being replaced using MDE/USDA-RD funds, and the engineering firm of Davis, Bowen, and Friedel is currently finalizing design . Construction for these pump stations is scheduled to begin in the summer/fall of 2023. Construction of the Jersey Island Pump Station is slated to begin in spring 2024. These projects are funded by MDE & USDA loans and principal forgiveness loans for a total of $4,392,300. These reflects the following costs: Cove Street (MDE funds of $499,300) and Rubberset (MDE funds of $1,850,000) along with USDA-RD funds of $1,293,000 and Jersey Island (MDE funds of $650,000 and City funds of $100,000).
- 1936 Sanitary Sewer Investigation and Rehabilitation Phase II, Water Isolation Valve Installation, and Large Water Meter Replacement. These projects are funded by the first round of American Rescue Funds, totaling $1,263,000. The 1936 Sanitary Sewer Investigation and Rehabilitation Phase II is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2023 and the Water Isolation Valve Installation fall of 2023. The 11 isolation valves will allow water to be shut down in strategic sections of the City to allow for repairs to be completed when needed. This will prevent the need to shut down the the entire City during repairs as has been done in the past. The valves areas have been identified, the project has been bid and awarded to a general contractor.
The 1936 Sanitary Sewer Investigation and Rehabilitation Phase II is currently underway with Chesapeake Environmental Services (CES). These are the large CES trucks that have been seen around the City lately. They are investigating the original sewer pipes from 1936 to determine if repairs are needed. They have completed the investigative portion with pipe rehabilitation planned for this summer.
The large water meters project will replace failed water meters which measure the volume of water in which the City supplies to the County to ensure that water system users in the County are charged fairly for use of water. Around 2007 the City received grant funds to install water meters throughout the City. The large water meters, which serve the County only, failed and have replaced under warranty, however the warranty only covers the meters, not the installation. The City is investigating funding options as the installation is estimated to cost $100,000.
Armory
The Department of Housing and Community Development has funded four grants for a total of $1 million in rehabilitation for the Crisfield Armory at 8 Main Street. The rehabilitated building will house community events, meetings, weddings and other celebrations as well as indoor sports activities. It is also envisioned as a space to relocate outdoor events, such as the Fourth Saturday Bay Art Stroll or Christmas in Crisfield, during inclement weather.
The most recent grant, for $250,000, will be used to address the needed heating, ventilation, and air conditioning upgrades and mold remediation. The City is exploring sources for the needed funding to complete this renovation.
Crisfield City Dock
Crisfield has submitted requests to Senator Cardin, Senator Van Hollen, and Congressman Harris for congressionally directed spending, or an earmark, of $2.2 million to make essential improvements to the City Dock. The total for this project is $2.5 million.
These applications are quite competitive, and the City of Crisfield is asking for community support for this project. To add your name to support these applications, please go to cityofcrisfield-md.gov.
The City Dock is critical infrastructure for Crisfield. It serves as the port for the US mail boats to Smith and Tangier islands, which also transport medical supplies, medical personnel, and food to these islands. It also serves for passenger ferries to these islands as well as cruise ships.
The funding requests are to address the needs found in a structural assessment conducted by the engineering firm Davis, Bowen, and Friedel. The assessment of the Crisfield City Dock found that there is severe deterioration and significant storm damage to the support structure, and that it has exceeded its useful life and is not suited to resist wave forces from coastal storms. The structural assessment recommends a more resilient design to resist the forces of wave action, including elevating the dock. The existing substructure will not support the live loading required by code. Due to this, events that are currently held at that dock are restricted to no more than 100 attendees.
The timeline for CDS funds is as follows: Senate Appropriations releases funding bills with earmarks that were selected, typically in August. Consolidated funding bill is agreed on by Congress and signed into law with Senate and House earmarks, typically in late December.
Earmark funding is likely distributed by federal agencies in early 2024.
The City Dock project is $2.5 million and, if the CDS (earmark) is approved, the City is responsible for matching funds of $250,441. As mentioned above, Crisfield has applied to the Maryland Department of Emergency Management Resilient MD Revolving Loan Fund for a 1% loan to fund this match.
A $90,000 grant from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for the Crisfield Depot Piers and Walkways will serve to repair the damaged south side of the City Dock. The City has applied for an additional $160,000 for needed structural repairs to this part of the dock. Revisions to the permitting and design are currently underway by the engineering firm of Davis, Bowen and Friedel to ensure that the new pier matches the design area of the entire pier as well as the increase in pier elevation needed to match the proposed City Dock Congressionally Directed Spending (earmark) project.
The City of Crisfield is grateful to Senator Mary Beth Carroza for sponsoring a $100,000 bond bill towards improvements for the Crisfield City Dock. These funds will be used towards planning that will create an even more inviting space for residents and the community, as well as preparing the dock to host large events. The application for these funds has been completed and the City is waiting for a response from the Regional Assignment of Capital Grant Projects.
Façade Improvement
The Façade and Business Improvement Program in Crisfield is designed to offer grants to business and property owners in Crisfield to assist them with outside façade improvements and other improvements to their business properties. Currently, there is available funding of $36,402 from the Department of Housing and Community Development Community Legacy Grant. There was a total of 17 business owners in attendance at two information sessions held for potential applicants. Applications, which were due April 26, 2023, were for up to $9,100 and the City’s goal is to fund at least 4 businesses. Awardees will be announced on May 25, 2023. Crisfield hopes to continue this program on an annual basis.
Other funding
It Takes A Village to Help Our Children, Inc has received an allocation of $1 million in the Governor’s Budget towards the youth center. There is $701,606 remaining in grant funding from the Department of Housing and Community Development for construction of a youth center for It Takes A Village to Help Our Children, Inc. This non-profit has also secured $350,000 from the Weinberg Foundation, $200,000 from Rural Maryland Council, $100,000 from Somerset County, $30,000 from the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and $40,000 from citizens and businesses was contributed during the organization’s capital campaign.
The City of Crisfield has hired Heather Ross as a part-time Circuit Rider, to assist with grants and to serve as the Arts & Entertainment District Coordinator. This is a Department of Housing and Community Development grant. The $50,000 in funding is shared equally with the town of Princess Anne, which in the process of hiring a part-time Circuit Rider.
Crisfield has been awarded a Connected Devices grant through the Office of Statewide Broadband, in partnership with the Somerset County Library. This program will distribute 500 laptops to eligible households that can show documentation of being within 200% of federal poverty guidelines. The delivery date for the laptops has not yet been announced. When a delivery date is announced, a separate press release will provide further details on distribution.
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a U.S. government program run by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help low-income households pay for internet service. To check your qualifications to enroll in the Affordable Connectivity Program please register at affordableconnectivity.gov.
Police Department Projects in Progress
LEOPS (Law Enforcement Officer’s Pension System) – Mayor and City Council adopted a Resolution on 4/12/2023 at the City Council meeting. The City is grateful to Senator Mary Beth Carozza for sponsoring this bill.
USDA VEHICLE – The Crisfield Police Department received a vehicle on April 6th.
Coalition Involvement Grant (Crisfield Community Prevention Works Drug Prevention Coalition Program) -The Crisfield Police Department received $5,000 to fund this program that aims to reduce substance abuse in the community.
