Aquidneck Island towns get help from Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank

All three Aquidneck Island communities are slated to benefit from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank.

The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank recently announced $1,000,000 in action grants for inaugural participants of the Municipal Resilience Program. Through the program, five communities developed climate resilience plans with prioritized local actions and will now use the grant funds for implementation.

Among the awards is $339,000 to the town of Portsmouth for the rehabilitation and stabilization of the Melville Dam and three flood mitigation projects to expand the capacity of existing infrastructure for increasing precipitation volumes.

“The Infrastructure Bank is committed to accelerating investment in sustainable infrastructure that better prepares Rhode Island communities for a changing climate” said Jeffrey R. Diehl, CEO of Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, in a statement. “We look forward to building on the success of the first round of the program and partnering with communities statewide to prepare and invest in critical infrastructure.”

To develop a prioritized list of actionable plans and projects, program participants completed Community Resilience Building workshops led by The Nature Conservancy. At the conclusion of the workshop process, the participating municipalities submitted action grant proposals for identified projects with a required 25% local match.

In addition to Portsmouth’s financial award the Bank also announced that a joint Newport/Middletown effort will be included in the next round of participants in the Municipal Resilience Program.

The nine communities participating in the Municipal Resilience Program, will be provided with technical support from The Nature Conservancy and the Infrastructure Bank to assess their vulnerabilities to climate change. Upon completion of the program, each of the communities will have the opportunity to apply for Infrastructure Bank grant funding to address specific community resilience projects.

“The Nature Conservancy is proud to be an implementation partner on the Municipal Resilience Program. Municipalities across the state are already confronted with the realities of climate change. The workshops empower communities to collaboratively figure out how to meet these challenges,” said Sue AnderBois, The Nature Conservancy’s climate and energy program manager, in a statement. “These grants will help the initial Resilient Rhody Municipalities implement some of their priorities – and we are pleased to see that the Governor’s proposed Beach, Clean Water and Green Bond includes funding for an additional 20 municipalities.”

In addition to being named to the Municipal Resilience Program, The Bank presented $7.8 million in savings derived from the refinancing of Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund bonds in December 2019.

Included in those savings is $1,650,045 for Newport and $8,096 for Middletown.

The refinancing is part of an ongoing strategic effort by the Bank to take advantage of low interest rates and provide financial savings to customers. Over the last five years, the Bank has provided $33.4 million in savings to borrowers by refinancing existing debt at lower interest rates.