Resiliency staff update: flood projects advance, Green Tier reporting is a heavy data lift

Resiliency staff provided project and reporting updates, including progress on flood resiliency designs, grant applications, and a discussion about the burden of Green Tier reporting and options for turning spreadsheet data into shareable information.

Melissa, the resiliency coordinator, said Van Vliet/Van Beaver Park flood resiliency engineering is at the 90% design stage and that East River/Emily Park has final engineering and is slated for construction in spring of next year, though excavation will be affected by saturated soils. She said two grant applications were submitted to help pay construction costs—one through a natural resources damages assessment and a pre-proposal to NIW—and reported the Connect the Bay planning and engineering project received about $900,000 to continue engineering near Southbury Marina to Bay Beach.

On Green Tier reporting, Melissa described the annual submission as a spreadsheet-heavy process that staff upload to a secure DNR portal. Commissioners discussed the value of producing a public-facing, year-over-year presentation of key metrics and suggested internship support to help with data entry, analysis and producing a more digestible report. Commissioners and staff identified metrics that could be useful for the commission to track and discuss whether community engagement or grant funding could support turning the raw data into a summarized product.

Melissa said participation from other departments and stable staff contacts over successive years has made the process easier, but agreed that an intern or volunteer support would likely improve the final public product. No formal decisions were made; staff were asked to explore options for producing shareable outputs and to coordinate with interested commissioners and the community engagement work group.