Jaffrey has received a total of $303,569 in federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse the town after a severe rainstorm in July of 2021 caused extensive road damage.
The Select Board met on Monday to hold a public hearing on the acceptance of the funds, but no residents were present, and so the board accepted the funds after only a perfunctory explanation of what the funds were related to.
“This is based on what we needed to do to repair roads, pavement, ditches, culverts,” explained Select Board Chair Frank Sterling.
Sterling noted because those repairs had been done in 2021, after the storm, they are already completed and have been paid for, and this effectively acts as a reimbursement due to the storm having been declared a disaster by the federal government.
Because the work has already been done, the funds will be added to the town’s general fund.
Town Manager Jon Frederick said the funds are not earmarked for anything specific, but suggested they could be used to bolster the fund for future sidewalk improvements.
In July 2021, after a tremendous rainstorm that dumped up to seven inches on the Monadnock region, the entire state felt the effects, with flooding, rivers cresting to their banks and road washouts causing issues across the state. The storm, in addition to other rain events that month, made that July the second-wettest month recorded in Concord since the start of record-keeping in 1868, and the wettest July on record.
The heaviest rainfall was concentrated on Cheshire County, and while damage varied from town to town, some were overwhelmed with major damage to the roadways due to flooding and washouts. Jaffrey was particularly affected, with the highest official rainfall report a total of 6.9 inches. The majority of the precipitation fell within about 12 hours at a very fast rate, marking it as an event that might happen only once every 100 years.
In Jaffrey, culverts on Letourneau Drive were damaged, and a culvert on Sawtelle Road failed and multiple roads were damaged.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertrascript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.