FEMA slow to pay up

Cash flow concerns loom large for Town of Delaware

By TOM KANE

HORTONVILLE, NY - Jim Scheutzow hasn’t seen one reimbursement check from the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA), even though his town’s timely request for $200,000 was correctly filed months ago.

Now, the supervisor of the Town of Delaware is wondering how to pay his day-to-day bills. The town expended large amounts from the general fund to pay for extensive repairs due to the damage of three 100-year floods within 18 months.

For example, the town will have to repair its embattled sewage treatment plant very soon. If it doesn’t, there is a danger that raw sewage will creep into the river. Right now, the equipment is working well enough. How long that will go on is anybody’s guess.

Estimates for the job are about $250,000. “Most of these items are very expensive. We’re going to have to borrow up to the $250,000 since we don’t have it in our general fund,” Scheutzow said.

“Do we know how much FEMA is going to pay us?” asked board member Kara McElroy. “We have no idea how much or when,” Scheutzow said.

The highway department is in the same bind. Highway superintendent Bill Eschenberg purchased a truck that was ruined in the latest flood. It cost $109,000 and the town expects FEMA to reimburse them with $75,000, which will partially pay for it. The truck was paid for from the highway budget. Eschenberg is hoping FEMA will come through soon, especially since he has to purchase a sander that goes on the truck for $6,200. He is hesitating because he doesn’t know whether FEMA will approve the truck and, if approved, when they will send the money.

“What good is a truck without a sander in the winter?” he asked.

At a meeting last week, the FEMA representative said they would try to get a partial payment to them as soon as possible.

“We don’t know when that will be,” Scheutzow said.

“FEMA has obligated three project work orders for the Town of Delaware amounting to $62,936,” said FEMA spokesman Russ Edmonston, . “We sent the paper work to the State Emergency Management Office, which adds 25 percent to that amount. We are processing thousands of these and it takes time to get them through the process. We can act quickly for things like equipment that was needed to handle the storm but can’t act so quickly with something like a water treatment plant.”