$200,000 grant will help city plan for culvert repair project

By CHRIS FROST
Eagle Times News Editor
CLAREMONT, NH — A $200,000 grant from the New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division will help the city prepare to repair twin culverts along Washington Street near Walmart.

The City Council accepted the Building Resilient Communities and Infrastructure grant which the Public Works Department applied for.

The grant requires a $20,000 match will come from the city’s Municipal Transportation Fund, Public Works Director Alex Gleeson said.

“There’s the old house on the left falling in on itself, just right there,” Gleeson said. “Those culverts underneath the ground need some work.”

The repair project is within the city’s Capital Improvement Plan and the full project is expected to cost $1.85 million, Gleeson said.

“What this would do is give us the ability to apply for those big grants and funding at the federal level and try to fund that project,” Gleeson said.

Claremont has previously applied for grants unsuccessfully because the city didn’t have a shovel-ready project with engineering plans and a hydrologic study, Gleeson said.

“It’s a pretty good deal,” he said of the grants.