PEABODY -- Peabody is a signature away from the first step in ending its downtown flood problems - and so far the city is still in the running.

The city is slated to receive $5.7 million in state funds for downtown flood control if Gov. Mitt Romney approves the supplementary state budget.

Thursday, a Romney staff member contacted the city to say Romney was ready to veto the funding.

"The governor thought Peabody didn't have flooding problems," said Director of Public Services Richard Carnevale. I called (Senate Majority Leader) Fred Berry and he informed the governor that we do."

The money would come from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). The state amount, 35 percent of the $17 million total cost Carnevale estimated at a flood meeting last spring, will be used to leverage Army Corps of Engineers funds for the remaining 65 percent, or about $11 million. The city will pay the design costs.

Before he spent the afternoon helping Berry to lobby the governor, Carnevale spent his morning in a meeting with representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers, discussing what Peabody needs to do to obtain the federal funding.

"We have to document the flood damage and the economic loss from four major floods in the last 10 years," Carnevale said. "We have to provide a cost benefit ratio: if we spend $17 million, how much damage will we avoid? If Eastman Gelatine has to shut down for a day, how much does it cost?"

Carnevale admitted that the city has always had trouble documenting flood damage.

His flood plan, originally written in 1999 and discussed at an April 21 flood meeting sponsored by the city and Chamber of Commerce, was based on flood studies from 1956, 1968, 1979, 1988 and 1996.

It included Proctor Brook channel and culvert improvements, $7.45 million; Goldthwaite Brook channel improvements, $6.4 million; a double-box culvert for Foster Street and across Peabody Square, $7 million.

Mayor Michael Bonfanti said Thursday morning he has also contacted the State House in support of the funding.

"Hopefully the governor will go along with the request," Bonfanti said. "This ties in with the downtown revitalization he's supported in other communities."

Bonfanti was asked if flood control funding was a subject of conversation during a lengthy talk he had with House Speaker Thomas Finneran when Finneran visited City Hall last spring.

"He was aware of Peabody's problems," Bonfanti said, "and it's something the city can't do alone."

Peabody residents and businesses were also slated to receive $500,000 in disaster relief assistance for the latest floods, April 1-April 30.