Officials Unveil Grants For Bay Programs

Some 1,800 communities will have access to .

But only one community could host the announcement.

That community was —where national, state and local officials met at Tuesday morning to unveil the program, which will be a joint venture between the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Havre de Grace Mayor Wayne Dougherty and Harford County Councilwoman , chair of the Chesapeake Bay Partnership’s Local Government Advisory Committee, were joined by EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin and NFWF Director David J. O’Neill.

It was the second time O'Neill has been to Concord Point to discuss the environment with the Chesapeake Bay as the backdrop. As a 24-year-old intern, O'Neill was in Havre de Grace on Earth Day in 1995 with President Bill Clinton.

"It was great, it was an amazing experience," O'Neill said, noting that Tuesday's impeccable weather was far greater than the overcast day 17 years ago.

Lisanti said it wasn't easy to convince officials to make the announcement in Havre de Grace, but all parties agreed Tuesday that it was an ideal spot to kick off the program.

"This is a place that gets it because they're so connected to it," O'Neill said. "It's making those connections to other communities that are further removed that is more difficult.

"For a place like this, re-orienting itself back to the water, with this park, [the Promenade], it has helped them reconnect to this resource and understand the value that it has, both economically, culturally and from a quality of life standpoint," O'Neill said.

In Havre de Grace, fixing Lilly Run—the local tributary that frequently —could be one of the projects that improves things both locally and regionally. 

O'Neill admitted he hadn't heard much about Lilly Run, but said the program could be used to help jump-start such a project—one that would need far more than the $4 million available through the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

"We made an investment in D.C. of about $700,000, that was leveraged up by about $6 million. It was our money that stimulated the other cash that came into it," O'Neill said. "Part of our goal with this is to catalyze other investments. If we can make a grant of $500,000 or $700,000, then we will be able to attract local, state and federal money to make those projects whole. One of the big parts with this thing is to catalyze other investment or leverage other investment, because $4 million is not enough to get done what we need to get done."

So while Havre de Grace won't be seeing all $4 million from this grant program, any boost from this program could be the key to initiating necessary funds from other sources to allow the local government to tackle issues that could improve the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay.

"Let us focus on our waters in our towns, with projects that we know produce the best outcomes," Lisanti said. "We in local government recognize that bay restoration begins by cleaning up every stream, every creek, and every waterway in this region."

TELL US: Should Havre de Grace apply for grant money through this project to help jumpstart a project to re-route Lilly Run? Leave a comment.