Killington's FEMA reimbursement update

In response to the following query by Jim Haff, our town manager Seth Webb has issued an update (which follows) on the status of Killington's reimbursement and its effects on the town's budget, of the recent FEMA decision not to reimburse cities and towns for replacing regular culverts which were destroyed by Irene with newly state mandated box culverts (which cost more).


Seth
I read an article the other day stating FEMA would not pay any of the required upgrades to infrastructure destroyed during Irene imposed on Towns from the State of Vermont. I know we have been waiting for funds from FEMA for some 4 years now so I have a few questions.

1) what is the remaining Bal of FEMA funds due to the Town as of today that we budgeted for this year.
2) Have we received any of the budgeted amount from FEMA this year that we budgeted for this year.
3) This ruling from FEMA  are you aware of.
4) does this ruling have any impact on the Town of Killingtons estimated revenue in our budget. If so what are the Town's administration including select board actions to counter if any negative impact on the current budget.

Seth I will put these questions in as a letter to the editor for next weeks publication with the Mountain times. It would be great if you could get answers to the Mountain times also for next week.
Thanks Jim Haff




June 30, 2015
Dear Editor,
Last weeks’ news about FEMA rejecting the State’s appeal to fund the cost of box culverts for other towns raised questions about our own Town’s outstanding claims to FEMA. I wanted to write to share where the Town of Killington stands with its final Irene claims and what we’ve learned about this recent development mentioned in the news.
The Town has received reimbursement for its Irene recovery projects except for bridges constructed on Stage and Ravine Roads and a portion of work on E. Mountain Road. The final claims for these projects are being submitted to FEMA on the Town’s behalf by the Vermont Department of Emergency Services, who is our link to FEMA.
The reason these final claims have not been submitted is that the State has been helping us make the case that we should receive more reimbursement than FEMA had planned. The State will be submitting our final case to FEMA in July.
To date, FEMA only wanted to pay the Town for the federal share of what it would have cost to build culverts on Stage and Ravine Roads. FEMA did not want to pay for the bridges we were required to build by the federal and state governments.
While our argument for reimbursing the cost of building bridges is certainly valid, it’s not clear on how it will fare with FEMA, so we have also pointed out that even if FEMA doesn't accept our full claim for the cost of reimbursement for the bridges, they should at least increase the amount they have planned to reimburse us for the replacement of the culverts. The reason being a lot of the infrastructure that was required for the bridges would have also been required for the culverts. As of now FEMA has not included that consideration in their initial reimbursement calculation.
Based on this, the 2015-16 Town budget planned for FEMA and the State to pay us $223,778. That revenue projection represents a conservative estimate of the
federal and state shares of the costs for the Town to replace the two culverts that existed before the storm not the bridges.
We expect to get reimbursed for the cost of replacing the culverts. We strongly believe we should be able to recover the full federal and state shares of the cost of building the bridges since the Federal and State governments required we build them. How this all sugars out is not clear yet. What we do know, is that had we not gone this route, and taken the extra time, we definitely would not have gotten full or partial reimbursement for what we spent to build the bridges we were required to build.
On the article from last week, Vermont Department of Emergency Services said they don’t see the recent FEMA decision having a significant bearing on our claim. Joe Flynn, Director Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for the State of Vermont told us, "while Killington awaits FEMA's final determination of its project applications there are no specific indications that the more global difference between the State and FEMA over the subject of Codes and Standards would conclusively translate negatively on this local project. Further comments as to what FEMA may or may not decide would be purely speculative."
As this issue continues to unfold, the Town will continue to work to maximize our FEMA reimbursement, and keep residents apprised on the progress.
Sincerely,
Seth Webb Town Manager