Havre de Grace Gets $100K Grant For Lilly Run

is the recipient of a $100,000 grant to help improve Lilly Run, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The city was one of four municipalities in the state to receive funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, as announced Monday at a conference in Lorton, VA.

“It was a very competitive process and a lot of people put in for it and we were lucky enough to receive the $100,000,” Havre de Grace spokesman and Lilly Run project coordinator John Van Gilder told Tuesday afternoon.

The at in Havre de Grace.

The city learned recently—and it became official Monday—that it was receiving a sizeable grant.

“Lilly Run has been a problem for flooding and for public safety in Havre de Grace for the last 75 years,” Harford County Councilwoman Mary Ann Lisanti told WBAL radio Tuesday. “The stream that meanders through the town often floods during heavy rains, cutting our hospital off, from transportation to be able to get into the town. This project will allow for us to begin fixing this problem.”

Lisanti said in the WBAL interview the funding would be made available immediately.

The scope of the entire project is beyond financial means for the city, but the grant will enable Havre de Grace to begin taking some early steps towards rectifying the flooding issue while also improving the quality of the water that runs through town and into the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

"There's as much need or more need to be concerned about the quality of urban stormwater," Van Gilder said. "Working with our original contractor and a group the center for watershed protection, we looked at the original concept, and we started working toward the implementation of that plan with water quality improvements."

Part of the project involves partnerships with and Harford County Public Schools. Lilly Run cuts across most of the city, including property owned by the Havre de Grace-based , and behind Havre de Grace High School’s .

"We're working very closely with those guys. The design is to build in an environmental education component, a small habitat," Van Gilder said. "We want it, really when it's all said and done, to be a showcase project. There will be a lot of recreational trails."

Havre de Grace has , helping to aid Maryland in .

The $100,000 grant will assist in cleansing the runoff from the city's largest stormwater discharge into the bay, Van Gilder said.

He said the short-term project will focus on a stretch of Lilly Run from Revolution Street to the Amtrak overpass near .

The other municipalities to receive grant funding include Cambridge, Easton and Prince George's County.

Stay with Patch for updates on the Lilly Run project.

See more:

• Maryland On Track to Meet Chesapeake Bay Goals