The Town of Warren is pursuing its options to find a final source of funding to finish the roughly $2 million last phase of a coastal restoration project near Jamiel’s Park that is more than 20 years in the making.

Last week, the Town learned it had received a $1.25 million Municipal Resilience Program Action Grant from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, which goes along with a $400,000 grant from the Southern New England Program (SNEP) received in October of 2023.

But the third piece of the anticipated funding – $350,000 from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM)’s Brownfield program – did not come in as hoped for, according to Herb Durfee III, Warren’s Town Planner.

“[T]hat would have served as the third leg of the funding stool for the Jamiel's Park Restoration Project,” he wrote in an email on Monday, adding that the Town was pursuing its options on securing that additional funding needed.

Durfee said, however, that the Town would still be able to move ahead with aspects of the project with the money they had secured to this point, while looking into ways to fill the funding gap.

“For instance, there is updated engineering design work that needs to be carried out and there are some permitting/planning tasks that need to be conducted (e.g., CRMC Category A Assent Modification; RIDEM RIPDES Construction General Permit and Water Quality Certification; updating the Town's: RIDEM Remedial Action Work Plan, Landfill Closure Plan, Environmental Land Usage Restriction, and Beneficial Use Determination; and, preparation of a Quality Assurance Project Plan),” Durfee wrote. “Also, besides engineering design and permitting/planning work, the Town can coordinate with RI Energy regarding the electrical transmission lines that transect the project area and the Town can prepare Construction Plans and bid the overall project. All of this work is 100% reimbursable and can be covered under the awarded grants.”