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City receiving reimbursement

Date: 10/17/2012

By G. Michael Dobbs

news@thereminder.com

CHICOPEE — The city is expecting reimbursement for the money it expended to clean up from last year's October Nor'easter.

"We're going to be made whole," Mayor Michael Bissonnette said last week.

He explained the city spent $6.7 million cleaning up from the storm that dumped a large quantity of heavy snow, which broke braches and fouled power lines.

Bissonnette said the initial reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was $3.7 million. That amount has been supplemented by $1 million from the Federal Highway Administration, $800,000 from Chicopee Electric Light and $1.5 million from the Commonwealth.

"It's very, very welcomed," he said of the reimbursement.

Bissonnette thanked State Sen. Michael Knapik for his help in securing the state reimbursement.

The mayor explained that three days before the 2011 storm, the city's free cash had been certified at $5.9 million — the largest amount in the city's history. The storm cleanup required the city to use that entire amount.

Bissonnette said his intentions are to pay off a short-term loan of $4 million the city needed to borrow and to put the rest of it into the city's stabilization — or "rainy day" — account.

The largest part of the imbursement — the $3.7 million from FEMA — should be sent to the city by the end of the month, Bissonnette said.

He added the city "took a bit of a risk on the scope of the cleanup." Rather than put the burden of much of the removal of tree limbs and other debris on the backs of the residents, Bissonnette said the city undertook the collection of that material from curbside.

"We decided to do as much as we could for homeowners," he said.