CHESTER – State officials will allocate $7.5 million to small towns in Western and central Massachusetts as disaster relief payments related to a July 2021 storm.

State Sens. Adam Hinds and Jo Comerford, and state Reps. Natalie Blais and Jacob R. Oliveira gathered at Chester Town Hall on Jan. 13 to announce the funding, which comes from Massachusetts’ share of the federal American Recovery Plan Act, or ARPA.

Hinds, who represents Blandford, Chester, Huntington and Otis, as well as dozens of towns to the west and north, filed the amendment to the state’s ARPA spending bill that secured the funding, and joined with Comerford in voting for the final appropriation. The money will aid small towns such as Blandford, Chester, Granville, Huntington, Otis and Tolland that were impacted by the devastating storm cell that caused an estimated $22 million in damages to 50 towns and 25 state parks and forests.

Hinds said the group also gathered in Chester to make an appeal to the state to invest in infrastructure in Western Massachusetts.

MEMA’s initial damage assessment was enough to get FEMA involved but fell short of meeting county and state thresholds for federal aid, Hinds said, and the state did not receive any federal assistance for the storm. The legislators started to hear from deeply concerned town officials about their situations. He said the towns sent out a “mayday — we’ve got a problem here” message.

“Despite no federal assistance, the towns were still stuck fixing the roads,” Hinds said.

Thanking town officials like Chester Town Administrator Katherine Warden, and selectmen, for their persistence, Hinds said, “This is how government is supposed to work.”

Warden thanked the local efforts of Chester Highway Supervisor Carl Baldasaro and his crew for responding and for documenting the level of damage. She said they spent hours with MEMA and FEMA, and although they didn’t meet the threshold, she said the MEMA and MassDOT regional offices were very supportive of the effort.

In the end, the state gave Chester the ability to overspend its highway account by $250,000 for sand and gravel for immediate repairs to the roads that were washed out, both paved and unpaved.

Chester Selectman Jason Forgue thanked the legislators for their support in getting ARPA funds. “The mere need for this amendment is symptomatic of the State House failing to properly respond to the needs of rural communities,” he said, adding “These senators and representatives here have been fighting for funds nearly six months after the fact,” calling the time lag “unacceptable.”

Comerford said local communities grappled immediately and tirelessly with “the storm that came out of nowhere. It didn’t stop local folks from keeping the community safe. I agree, the state and federal governments should have done more, sooner.”

She said the Western Mass delegation has united around the need to invest in infrastructure in the region.

“We are small in number, but great in chutzpah. This is a heck of a long underinvestment of infrastructure in local communities,” Comerford said.

“I’m glad to lock arms with these folks and bring it home,” Hinds said, calling it a team effort that needs both the House and the Senate. He called state Rep. Natalie Blais, who represents Chester, Huntington, and several towns to the north, “a fierce advocate and leader on the House side.”

Blais said she was pleased to be standing next to her colleagues. She talked about unpaved roads, and the burden they are on towns with “more and more frequent and intense storms. The costs are creeping up,” she said, adding that the State House needs to be more aware of unpaved roads. After the storm, she put a call out to the towns for photos, which she said were “shocking.”

“We were disappointed when we didn’t meet the threshold for federal dollars. Because towns like Chester didn’t give up, there was no way we were going to give up,” Blais said, adding that she agrees the funds are too late.

State Rep. Jake Oliveira was also in attendance in Chester on behalf of Belchertown and Chicopee, which both suffered significant damage in the July 2021 storm. He said in Belchertown, one road washed out and was completely cut off due to flooding from the Swift River.

“It was a dangerous situation. The next day, there were dead fish in 90-degree weather.”

He said damages to homes ran into the tens of thousands, and wells were also impacted.

Oliveira said he is pleased to partner with his colleagues.

“We know these events aren’t going away, because of extreme weather impacted by climate change,” he said.

According to a spreadsheet provided by Hinds’ office, Chester initially reported $1.5 million in damage to roads and bridges as a result of the July 2021 storm. Huntington saw $821,500 in losses, including $750,000 in damage to water control facilities, $70,000 to roads and bridges, and $1,500 in debris cleanup. Blandford suffered $115,000 in damage, of which $100,000 was to roads and bridges, and $15,000 in debris cleanup. Otis lost $85,000, with $100,000 in road and bridge damage and $10,000 in debris cleanup. Tolland reported $57,942 in road and bridge damage. Granville saw $35,000 in damage, consisting of $25,000 for roads and bridges, $5,000 for debris and $5,000 for emergency protective measures.

Additionally, Chester-Blandford State Forest reported $170,000 in damage to roads; Otis State Forest reported $120,000 in damage to roads and $17,000 in damage to parkland; and Tolland State Forest reported $100,000 in damage to roads.

Blais said state officials are still working on how to distribute the ARPA funding, and award figures for individual towns are not yet available.