FORT FAIRFIELD – A planning process to make this rural farming community less affected by natural disasters is expected to begin this month.

Funded with a $300,000 federal grant, Fort Fairfield’s Project Impact will bring together local officials, business leaders and other members of the public to determine what infrastructure improvements can be made to protect the community.

“Obviously, [the improvements] have to do something in mitigation,” Michael Eisensmith, Project Impact coordinator, said Thursday.

The town of Fort Fairfield was chosen as a Project Impact community due to its history with several mitigation and flood prevention programs. It was the only town chosen in the state for 2001. The grant period is for two years, according to Eisensmith.

The southern Maine city of Saco received project funds last year.

Project Impact is designed to build a “disaster-resistant community” by changing the way the country deals with natural disasters, according to program literature. Eisensmith said that the program is to make “disasters less disastrous.”

The case of Darlington, Wis., is cited as an example in a program brochure. With its grant money, the community flood-proofed a dozen buildings, relocated 15 buildings and developed an alternative site for business operation and limited development near a river that had flooded numerous times.

The business district of Fort Fairfield was severely damaged in the mid-1990s when the Aroostook River flooded during the spring. Millions of dollars in damage was caused.

Since then, the community, with federal assistance, built an earthen dike to project the business district.

Flooding, however, is not the only disaster that the region has experienced. Tornadoes, hurricanes, ice jams and earthquakes all have occurred in northern Maine, Eisensmith said.

Although the money is awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the criteria for the grant are established by the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

“They saw the amount of forward thinking the town had and [thought] it would be a good candidate for the program,” Eisensmith said.

The first meeting for the project will be held later this month to begin the planning process. Eisensmith said that he has no proposals to present, but will facilitate that development.

“My role is to draw out ideas,” the project director said.

“I think the community ought to say what it wants,” Eisensmith said.

He anticipated that issues involving the river, communications and access to electric power may be part of the discussions. Shelters for people displaced by disaster also may be a topic, he said.

The town may be the last to receive federal funds for disaster planning of this type. The Bush administration has declined to continue the program in its present form, Eisensmith said.