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Date: 10/8/2015
EAST LONGMEADOW – The town is guaranteed to receive an additional final $151,000 in reimbursement money for the costs associated with the Oct. 31, 2011 snowstorm cleanup nearly four years after the Halloween storm.
Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Robert Peirent told Reminder Publications the funds are available through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and would bring the total reimbursement to over $1 million.
“These expenses were unanticipated expenses, so they were funded through the town general fund and the funds are now being returned to the town’s bank account,” he added. “This is good news for the entire town, not just the DPW.”
However, there is no indication whether the town would receIve the money in the near future.
The largest portion of the money spent on the cleanup was on secondary streets, he said.
“Those are the streets where they’re narrower – the trees are closer to the street – we focused on getting that reimbursement first,” he added.
The Federal Highway Administration reimbursed the town for the cleanup on main streets, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursed for secondary streets, Peirent said.
The town received $731,000 in reimbursement from FEMA in 2013, Peirent said.
Neighboring communities utilized mostly outside contractors during the storm, such as Longmeadow, which spent $12 million on debris cleanup, he said. East Longmeadow primarily used the DPW for the cleanup.
“We spent a fraction of that – about $1 million of that – to do our cleanup,” he added.
Most of the town was without power for the week of the storm and roads were primarily impassable due to fallen tree limbs, power lines, and approximately two feet of snow, Peirent said.
The DPW spent the first day or two mostly responding to the snow, he noted.
“Even responding to the event in doing what we normally do with plowing streets was difficult to do,” he added.