Crisfield set to receive grant funding to support flood mitigation
CRISFIELD, Md. – It’s no surprise that when the tide is high Crisfield is often flooded.
“City Hall is going to take care of it I can see a positive future for Crisfield,” said Danny Nelson.
Danny Nelson, owner of Waters Edge Cafe says that the funding heading to the city will help with the widespread flooding issue. City officials have been working with state agencies to establish funding, some of which will support the ditch mapping project. “To compile maps of our ditches it’s something that we didn’t have before our stormwater infrastructure our ditches actually built by the civilian conservation corp on the 1930s and we didn’t have maps,” said Jennifer Merritt.
City grant writer, Jen Merritt says the flooding issue is significant because the city is low-lying. “Crisfield has a lot of areas that are in the flood plain because it is so flat for such a long way so where some communities experience very localized flooding when we experience flooding it tends to go further inland,” Merritt added.
Business owners on the waterfront say the funding set to help flood mitigation could be the answer to keeping their doors open after a weather event. “Well sometimes we have to close because the water makes it impassable for patrons. Generally, it’s just a tide problem it comes up and it goes back out. It makes it tough some of the other businesses have to close for a day or two where they can’t get in out because of the rain waters that are being held, it’s never good to close,” said Danny Nelson.
Crisfield Mayor Darlene Taylor says Crisfield is headed in the right direction — up! “It’s a good time to be in Crisfield there are so many things that are happening, you can feel it in the community!
The city is set to submit their applications for this flooding between December and January.
The city is also working on growing the business side of things. They’ve recently requested $500,000 for revitalization on Main Street. The mayor says this funding would be used to assess the building and make sure it is structurally up to par.
The establishment at 339 West Main Street is a city-owned building that the city wants to use as an anchor to redevelop and drive economic activity back to the area. “So how do I start a business? Everyone is interested in starting a business and we have a lot of talent here but we don’t have an opportunity for them to do that so we see this economic incubator as a huge economic driver,” said Mayor Taylor.
That request was just advanced to Senate Appropriations by Senator Ben Cardin and Senator Van Hollen.
