SALEM, N.H. — The town will buy nine homes at the end of Haigh Avenue that have been the sites of persistent flooding.
After three years of trying, the town has received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $1.89 million to purchase nine homes at the end of the road, the selectmen announced earlier this week.
The town first applied to FEMA in 2006 for money to purchase the houses. That request was rejected then and again in 2007.
The grant will pay for 75 percent of the cost to purchase the houses at each property's assessed value. The other 25 percent will be paid for by the state. Most of the assessed values range from $260,000 to $320,000.
The houses will be razed and the land used as a runoff area for Interstate 93 once the interstate widening project is complete.
Haigh Avenue resident Norbert Pestana has suffered through five major floods since he moved into the neighborhood 20 years ago. For the last three years, he has served on the town's Flood Mitigation Action Committee, a group comprised mostly of Haigh Avenue neighborhood residents who have worked to bring attention to the flooding in the area.
Pestana said the worst flooding occurred on Mother's Day 2006, when 4 feet of water filled his basement, forcing his family to evacuate.
He has been seeking a buyout from the state for years, but it won't be easy to leave the place he raised his children, he said.
"It's a bittersweet thing, being bought out," he said. "We're moving out of an area we've lived in for more than 20 years; our friends and family are in this area."
Pestana said he plans to move to a second home he owns along New Hampshire's coastline.
Selectman Everett McBride recalled going to the neighborhood during a flood in the late 1980s to help residents pile sandbags to stave off water.
"It became apparent to me long ago that the only solution to this problem would be to move the homes," McBride said.
The town expects to receive the money to buy the houses in November, and Pestana said he was told residents would be given six to 12 months to move.
The grant only addresses part of the problem in the neighborhood. Community Development Director Bill Scott is in the process of applying for grants to purchase 15 more houses in the neighborhood, McBride said.
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