The Town Council has established a Sea Level Rise Committee with a mission to “understand the potential local impacts posed by sea level rise, assess the community’s vulnerabilities, engage citizens and assist the town to assess, recommend and implement mitigation projects or other priority actions that will improve Block Island’s coastal resiliency.”Second Warden Sven Risom met with The Times to discuss what this committee is all about. Risom was a part of the Sea Level Rise Staff Task Force, the town staff group that developed the recommendation to the Town Council to form this new town committee.Except for Risom, the task force was made up entirely of town staff, including representatives from the Harbors Department, Highways Department, Land Use, and the facilities manager. Risom said it was important for the newly forming committee to have community members from the private sector involved as well.“We have local people that are valuable, people that are science based,” Risom said, mentioning that he hoped having some of these citizen experts on the committee would result in it being “proactive rather than reactive.”
Discussing the need to identify the areas potentially vulnerable to sea level rise, come up with policies and actions