Minot is one of forty municipal and state governments that will be moving on to the second round of the National Disaster Resilience Competition, a program sponsored by Housing and Urban development that will award up to a billion dollars of federal money.
— Official News Release, City of Minot —
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro announced today that 40 states and local communities, including Minot, will compete in the second and final phase of HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC).
City Manager Lee Staab welcomed the news. Staab: “Today’s announcement by HUD is a monumental step forward in securing much needed funding for the future of Minot. We had always planned to continue our resiliency efforts regardless of the outcome of the competition, but being selected to participate in Phase II means that we will proceed with the Federal Government as a partner in those efforts”.
Minot joins 14 municipal and 26 state governments in the Phase II process. Staab says Phase II is where the city will be able to provide a firm plan to HUD, as well as the regional partners. “Phase I was about listening to the community and coming up with a broad-brushed approach of becoming more resilient throughout Minot and the Souris River basin. Phase II is where we will develop a firm strategy going forward, and present that to HUD in order to receive the funding necessary to achieve that vision”. Selected projects will be funded from a total pool of nearly $1 billion. $181 million is set aside for projects in New York and New Jersey. The maximum grant award available at the end of Phase 2 will be $500 million and the minimum will be $1 million.
Staab recently named long-time City Planner, Donna Bye, as the Chief Resilience Officer, or CRO. As the CRO, Ms. Bye will work in conjunction with newly appointed City Planning Director, Stephen Parker, in further developing the Phase II and long-term strategies for the region. Bye: “A CRO is someone who engages community stakeholders, listens to them and empowers them to become adaptable. Each community is different, with their own goals, priorities, vision, assets and quality of life. As the Minot CRO, I’m looking forward to working through Phase II of this competition with our community so we can become more resilient.” Parker, who just started his position with the city at the beginning of June, looks forward to the challenge. “This is an exciting time for Minot and the Souris River Basin, and I’m very happy to be a part of this team that has been put together for the NDRC.”
Staab says that a group from Minot will attend a Resilience Academy in the next few weeks in order to better prepare for Phase II. A similar academy was held for Phase I in Kansas City several months ago. Staab also reiterated the importance of public input: “In Phase I, we held several public input meetings in Minot and the area, and we will do so again for Phase II. It is critically important for us to have the public’s input as we really get in to the nuts and bolts of what we can do with these federal funds”. As public meetings are scheduled, information will be released from the City’s Public Information Office.
NATIONAL DISASTER RESILIENCE COMPETITION
HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition makes $1 billion available to communities that have been struck by natural disasters in recent years. The competition promotes risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, and planning and will fund the implementation of innovative resilience projects to better prepare communities for future storms and other extreme events. Funding for the competition is from the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) appropriation provided by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 (PL113-2), which made emergency funds available for Hurricane Sandy and other Presidentially declared major disasters occurring in 2011-2013. This competition responds to requests from state and local leaders who asked the federal government to help them prepare their communities for the impacts of climate change and support investments in more resilient infrastructure. HUD expects that the final awards will not only help better protect residents from future threats in those affected areas, but will help to lead the way for all American communities to make better and more thoughtful investments in resilience.
The National Disaster Resilience Competition finalists are:
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- State of Mississippi
- State of Alaska
- State of Missouri
- State of California
- State of Montana
- State of Colorado
- State of New Jersey
- State of Connecticut
- State of New Mexico
- Chicago, Illinois
- New York City, New York
- Cook County, Illinois
- State of New York
- DuPage County, Illinois
- Minot, North Dakota
- State of Illinois
- Moore, Oklahoma
- State of Iowa
- State of Oklahoma
- State of Kansas
- State of Oregon
- State of Kentucky
- Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
- Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
- Puerto Rico
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Shelby County, Tennessee
- St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
- State of Tennessee
- State of Louisiana
- State of Texas
- Springfield, Massachusetts
- State of Utah
- State of Massachusetts
- State of Virginia
- State of Michigan
- State of Washington
- State of Minnesota
- State of West Virginia
