WALDO COUNTY — Nine Waldo County communities will share more than $820,000 in state-administered grants aimed at strengthening shorelines, improving roads and drainage, increasing energy efficiency and helping towns better withstand severe storms and other effects of a changing climate.
State Sen. Chip Curry, D-Belfast, announced that communities in Senate District 11 received a combined $820,742 through the May and September rounds of Community Action Grants awarded through Maine’s Community Resilience Partnership.
The funding will support projects ranging from improvements to Belfast’s harbor breakwater and Heritage Park shoreline to road and drainage studies in Searsmont, harbor resilience planning in Lincolnville and restoration of a community building in Liberty.
“When a storm washes out a road or knocks out the power, it can quickly become an emergency for families trying to get to work, reach a doctor or stay safe,” Curry said. “These grants will help communities across Waldo County prepare for those situations while finding ways to reduce energy costs. I’m grateful to the local officials and volunteers who know the needs in their communities and put in the work to develop these projects.”
The latest round accounts for $516,071 of the Waldo County funding and includes grants for Belfast, Freedom, Islesboro, Liberty, Northport, Searsmont and Stockton Springs.
Belfast will receive $80,000 to upgrade and redesign its harbor breakwater, with the work intended to address increasingly damaging storms and rising sea levels. The project adds to another $80,000 Community Action Grant the city received in May for design work associated with restoration of the Heritage Park shoreline.
Together, the two awards provide Belfast with $160,000 this year for projects focused on protecting its waterfront.
Freedom will receive $80,000 for several initiatives, including stream-crossing upgrades and energy audits of municipal buildings. The grant will also support development of a “Complete Streets” policy, an approach to transportation planning intended to make streets safer and more accessible for a range of users while supporting local economies and the natural environment.
Islesboro was awarded $75,000 for efforts intended to move the island toward becoming fossil-fuel free while developing an equitable, lower-cost and more resilient local electricity system. Energy resilience can be particularly important for island communities, where storms and power interruptions can create additional challenges.
Liberty will receive $75,000 toward restoration of the Walker Building. Plans call for the building to provide community services, including serving as an emergency warming and cooling center during extreme weather or other emergencies.
Northport was awarded $51,531 for a community energy-efficiency program. That comes on top of a $70,685 award the town received in May for a townwide stormwater assessment and a food-waste composting pilot program. Combined, Northport has received $122,216 through the two 2026 grant rounds.
Searsmont will receive $79,540 to evaluate the town’s roads and drainage systems. Such assessments can help communities identify vulnerable culverts, drainage systems and stretches of road before they fail or suffer major damage during severe storms.
Stockton Springs was awarded $75,000 for what the state described as a multipronged effort to reduce municipal emissions.
The September awards follow $304,671 awarded to Waldo County communities in May.
In addition to the earlier Belfast and Northport grants, Lincolnville received $79,962 for a harbor resilience assessment and visioning project. Searsport was awarded $74,024 for shoreline stabilization and improvements to communications.
Taken together, the projects illustrate the broad scope of the Community Resilience Partnership. While some grants are directed toward reducing energy consumption and emissions, others address more immediate infrastructure concerns, including roads, culverts, shorelines, municipal buildings and emergency preparedness.
The partnership is administered by the Maine Office of Community Affairs and is designed to help municipalities prepare for climate-related effects such as severe storms and flooding while also supporting efforts to transition toward cleaner and more efficient energy systems.
The September funding represents the second round of Community Action Grants awarded in 2026 and the seventh round since the program began. Statewide, the latest round provides approximately $4.7 million for projects in 72 communities.
The previous round, announced in May, provided more than $5 million for projects in 76 Maine communities.
Funding for the grants comes from a combination of state and federal sources. Those include money approved in Maine’s 2024 supplemental budget following the destructive storms of December 2023 and January 2024, funding authorized through the state’s 2023 biennial budget and a federal grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The December 2023 and January 2024 storms caused widespread damage in communities across Maine, underscoring the vulnerability of roads, bridges, waterfronts, electrical systems and other public infrastructure during increasingly severe weather events. The Community Action Grants are intended in part to give municipalities resources to address vulnerabilities before another major storm turns them into emergencies.
For Waldo County, the 2026 awards spread that investment across coastal, island and inland communities.
Coastal communities such as Belfast, Lincolnville and Searsport will use funding to examine or strengthen waterfront infrastructure. Inland towns including Freedom and Searsmont will focus in part on roads, stream crossings and drainage. Liberty’s project incorporates emergency shelter capacity, while projects in Islesboro, Northport and Stockton Springs place a greater emphasis on energy resilience, efficiency or emissions reduction.
Several communities also received funding in both rounds, allowing them to pursue separate projects simultaneously. Belfast’s two awards total $160,000, while Northport’s grants total $122,216.
Curry is serving his third term in the Maine Senate representing District 11, which encompasses all of Waldo County. He serves as Senate chair of the Legislature’s Housing and Economic Development Committee and is a member of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
For Curry, the value of the grants ultimately comes down to helping individual towns prepare for disruptions that can quickly affect everyday life.
The projects funded this year vary widely from community to community, but share a common goal: strengthening local infrastructure and giving Waldo County towns more tools to withstand the next major storm while planning for longer-term energy and climate challenges.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.