Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program

Yarmouth Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness - July 2020 Update

On February 5, 2020 a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program Action Grant was awarded to the Town of Yarmouth in the amount of $150,000. This grant will fund an energy resiliency planning project for two mission-critical town facilities, one being the 50 Workshop Road campus which includes the regional transfer station, septage facility, and disposal and staging area. The other facility involved in this grant is Fire Station #3, and the Town anticipates being able to integrate this site with the new DPW facility located across the street.

The purpose of this project is to design these facilities to maintain energy, communications, and internet capabilities in the event of an outage or widespread disaster. Some of the elements included in this project are the use of solar PV and battery storage, new fiber connections, and microwave backups on hardened facilities.

The Town hosted an Energy Resiliency Webinar on June 30, 2020 to discuss the Town’s energy resiliency initiatives, including this project. The webinar video and PowerPoint Presentation can be found below:

Town of Yarmouth Energy Resiliency Webinar                                                                                                                 Energy Resiliency Webinar PowerPoint Presentation

FINAL MVP REPORT – June 2019

The Town of Yarmouth has completed the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program which was conducted through a grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA). The Final Yarmouth MVP Report dated June 2019 can be viewed at the link below.

The Town enrolled in the MVP Program to plan for ways to better prepare and protect the Town from natural and climate-related hazards. As a coastal community, Yarmouth needs to be especially mindful of natural hazards and severe weather events which can cause damage to our community.

The MVP Report was developed using public input obtained from the March 22, 2019 Community Resilience Building Workshop and the April 30, 2019 Public Listening Session.

The Workshop was led by Woods Hole Group and a core team of Town Staff. The MVP Workshop participants included a wide range of community members with different perspectives and expertise. Participants identified and prioritized actions to reduce risk and improve the resiliency of the societal, environmental and infrastructure components within our community. The central objectives of the Workshop were to:

  • Define top local natural and climate-related hazards of concern and the connection with local planning/mitigation efforts.
  • Identify existing and future strengths and vulnerabilities
  • Develop prioritized actions for the community

Woods Hole Group prepared a Draft MVP Report summarizing the Workshop results including the top ten priority action items, as well as other recommended actions which were ranked in terms of low, medium or high priority. The Draft MVP Report was distributed for public comment and presented at the April 30, 2019 Public Listening Session conducted by Town Staff. Input from Listening Session was incorporated into the Final MVP Report.

The successful completion of the MVP Program officially designates Yarmouth as an MVP Community and make us eligible for future MVP Action Grants to help implement the action items identified in the report. A list of projects eligible for such grants can be found under the MVP Action Grant Information link below.

For further information, contact Kathy Williams, Town Planner, at kwilliams@yarmouth.ma.us