By Guy Page
The Caledonia County town of Kirby is small by even Northeast Kingdom standards. Its 575 residents live on 24.4 square miles.
To most Vermonters, Kirby is best known for middling-high (2,750 ft.) Kirby Mountain and its most famous living resident: longtime town moderator, former state senator, and Ethan Allen Institute founder John McClaughry.
But now Kirby is known for something big: a $1 million line of credit selectmen last Thursday reluctantly agreed to take out from a local bank to pay pressing invoices for flood repairs, the Caledonian-Record reported August 13.
The town lost three bridges in two July floods. Roads and culverts have been washed away. Parts of town are cut off from emergency services including ambulances. There’s a lot of work to be done and it can’t wait, town officials say.
“We probably haven’t done something on this scale since the 1938 Hurricane. And there was no FEMA,” Keith Wooster, the town rep to the regional emergency management committee, told selectboard, the CR reported.
Furthermore the town has only enough cash on hand to pay for half of the invoices already submitted. Invoices, the town clerk and treasurer says, “I can’t pay.”
The town elders hope to document as much damage as possible, fix what’s absolutely necessary before the ground freezes, and submit the expenses to FEMA. The local Passumpsic bank suggested the best funding vehicle is a line of credit – basically a promise by the bank to lend up to $1 million, as needed.
While FEMA funding reimbursement can be ponderously slow, the Scott administration has taken steps to speed funding to businesses and mobile home owners – initiatives that may or may not help Kirby immediately, but should provide ‘rapid relief’ statewide.
State E-Board approves business, mobile home flood recovery funding – On Thursday, the State’s Emergency Board met and approved funding requests from the Scott Administration for two recovery initiatives, a statement issued Friday by Gov. Scott’s office said.
The initiatives will provide ‘rapid relief’ for businesses and mobile home owners, the administration said.
The first was $7 million for Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program (BEGAP). This grant program provides rapid relief to businesses, farms and nonprofits that sustained physical damage from the 2024 flooding events. The Agency of Commerce and Community Development expects to publish guidance and eligibility criteria in the coming weeks. The Department of Economic Development Newsletter will also include the latest updates.
The second was $7 million for the Administration’s Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill initiative, which will support the State’s work to improve currently vacant mobile home lots, place new, energy efficient mobile homes, and facilitate sale to eligible home owners. The Administration’s plan should place 30 units by the end of the year, and 100 by next summer, increasing housing stock, creating opportunities for homeownership and, therefore, increasing available rental units.
“The latest numbers from Vermont 211 show more than 300 businesses were damaged by flooding last month,” said Commerce and Community Development Secretary Lindsay Kurrle. “We know this $7,000,000 won’t make all those organizations whole, but it will help them in their recovery.”
To further support this Rapid Response initiative, Governor Scott has signed another addendum to his State of Emergency declaration, which temporarily waives specific regulatory requirements to allow for faster, more affordable, placement of these mobile home units.