Ashe's legislation to aid disaster recoveryDate: 2/13/2012 Feb. 13, 2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.com
GREATER SPRINGFIELD — State Rep. Brian Ashe recently filed legislation that would aid towns affected by natural disaster to better manage the cost of cleanup and restoration.
Two separate bills, which garnered bi-partisan support, were designed to help communities affected by the June 1, 2011 tornado and the Oct. 29, 2011 snowstorm, as well as create better options for towns in the Commonwealth affected by future disasters.
The first bill, "An Act Extending the Time Period for Emergency Appropriations" is intended to extend the borrowing period for municipalities.
"Right now, towns have two years to pay back loans for clean up costs after a disaster," Ashe said. "This bill extends that time frame from two years to five years."
Ashe said the purpose of extending the borrowing period was to lessen costs for towns affected by natural disasters and their residents.
"Cities and towns had to deal with an extra burden from the storms and budgets were stretched," he said. "Allowing the longer term for financing reduce burden on taxpayers and the town's operating budget."
Ashe added that the suggestion was made to extend the borrowing period to 10 years, but he said he wanted to make sure the bill was fair to both borrowers and lenders.
The second bill, "An Act Establishing a Special Fund to be Used For the Replanting of Trees," would allow towns that have adopted the Community Preservation Act (CPA) to use those funds toward the replacement of trees.
"Most insurance companies cover homes and buildings, but not trees and for many communities, that was the most dramatic change after this year's storms," he said. "Any town that lost trees is going to have to wait a long time to see it replaced with one like it. A building or a house can be rebuilt in a year. It takes 20 to 30 years for a tree to grow to the size of a lot of the trees that fell or were taken down. This will help the towns get started."
Ashe said the only way currently to replace trees with CPA funds is to prove those trees had historical significance.
"That is very difficult to do," he said. "The only way that happens most of the time is if the tree is on historical property or next to a historical building."
Ashe also stressed that both bills are dedicated strictly to communities affected by natural disasters.
"These bills aren't so a town can extend borrowing just because they want to or think they should or to plant trees because they want to," he said. "There is a very specific purpose for these bills and that is to ease the financial burden on towns that have had to deal with a disaster."
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