CANTON – Residents agreed to accept an emergency grant from the Community Development Block Grant urgent need program at a special town meeting Tuesday night.

Before they did, Selectman Sue Gammon explained how the $100,000 would be used, and an update was given on tentative plans to move the village out of the Androscoggin River floodplain.

“This is a gift to us,” said Gammon, who with many other town residents devoted dozens of hours helping out in some way during the Dec. 18 flood. “This is a result of the governor visiting us that day (Dec. 20).”

The grant is already promised to the town, she said. Residents just had to approve its acceptance. And the more than 65 who turned out Tuesday did just that, unanimously.

Most CDBG grants require a match of 10 to 20 percent. An urgent need grant doesn’t require any kind of match.

With the urgent need grant, Gammon said that meant the state said, ‘You can’t afford to raise taxes to pay for the flood.’

An estimated total of $2.1 million in damage occurred during the heavy rain and snow melt causing water to rise up to 8 feet in some parts of town. And more than $100,000 will be spent by the town and the homeowners, but the grant will help out a lot.

Gammon said some of the money has already been spent for such things as sump pumps and pumps, generators, pressure fans, and barricade signs and cones.

Some will help pay for the special door-to-door trash pickup held last Saturday that allowed flooded residents to dispose of soggy rugs and other items destroyed by the high water. The transfer station will also take more of these items Wednesday, Dec. 31, and Saturday, Jan. 3. A second pickup may be scheduled in the future.

Funding was also used to replace several radios owned by the Canton Fire and Rescue Squad that broke down during the flood and the following few days, as well as to evacuate the 110 residents from the Victorian Villa Rehabilitation and Living Center. Also covered by the grant will be costs incurred for heating assessments and minor furnace start-up repairs and salt and sand replacement for the town.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had an offer of immediate state help, and the first without a match. It is truly a gift,” she said.

She also said plans are proceeding to try to get a $3.3 million federal flood mitigation grant that would help pay the costs for moving much of the village to higher ground.

“We’ve had three floods in 17 years. I don’t want to have to think of that every year,” she said. Those were in April 1987, February 1988 and December 2003.

The Comprehensive Plan Committee has recommended moving the village. Townspeople will vote on the plan during the March annual town meeting. Committee Co-chairwoman Dianne Ray said the town should have some idea of whether the grant is successful by summer.

But even if that doesn’t work, and Federal Emergency Management Agency funds don’t come through for the flood damage, Gammon said there are many other grants the town will pursue.

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