BETHEL – If all goes as planned, reconstruction work at Davis Park will begin Nov. 1.

At a special town meeting Monday, a group of about 25 Bethel residents authorized selectmen to accept an estimated $303,983 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the project, and appropriated more than $100,000 from the town’s undesignated funds as the local share of the project.

The FEMA grant has been delayed because of hurricane damage in Florida.

“We don’t have an absolute confirmation that FEMA will fund its share of the project as of today,” Town Manager Scott Cole told residents.

“We do have verbal confirmation that they will fund the project,” said project manager Mark Allenwood. “There’s only a handful of FEMA people throughout the country and as this project was being bid, there were three or four hurricanes that hit Florida.” As a result, FEMA personnel have been very difficult to contact.

Some residents were skeptical that the project would contain the river. “As somebody who lives down river on a farm,” commented resident Tim Carter, “I’ve watched the river take acres and acres away.”

Allenwood told residents that the riverbank will be stabilized with a two-part riprap system. Flooding last December washed away the banks down to the “native sand.” This sand will support a layer of stones about the size of a folding chair. A second layer of stones about the size of a small car will be able to resist damage from ice floes.

Allenwood said this type of riverbank stabilization has been successful on the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, although some residents remained doubtful.

“I personally don’t think you’re going to stop the Androscoggin River,” said resident Frank Gibson.

Of the $101,000 residents approved taking from undesignated funds, about $18,000 will come from the sewer budget. This amount will be used to replace a sewer outflow pipe that was washed away in last winter’s flooding.

A note added by selectmen to the meeting’s agenda read: “passage of this article is likely to result in short-term borrowing by the town of Bethel in anticipation of taxes.”

At the selectmen’s meeting after the special town meeting, selectmen authorized Cole to establish an $800,000 line of credit for the town.