Reimbursements for damages in Beach Haven from Superstorm Sandy are not being collected as efficiently as the town had hoped.
“We are now 18 months from the event, and I have to say, right here in Beach Haven we’re really no further to achieving what we wanted in terms of reimbursement for our damages than we were 12 months ago,” Richard Crane, Beach Haven borough manager, said at the council meeting on Monday, May 12.
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| Photo via BioPrepWatch Members of the Beach Haven Borough Council have requested that the NJOEM ensure FEMA funds are disbursed in a timely fashion. |
The council has been informed that the failure to distribute these funds is due in part to an inadequate number of finance staff at the NJOEM to process the project worksheets currently required by FEMA. The NJOEM has only nine people in the finance department, and is currently in possession of $750 million in federal disaster relief funds from FEMA that has not been disbursed, Crane explained.
“I can’t even really cast blame at FEMA at this point. I don’t necessarily agree with most of the numbers that FEMA has in the system, but at least the numbers are in the system. We can fight that later,” he said.
As a result of the damage caused by Sandy, the borough has expended funds to repair the damage to borough infrastructure and buildings and has submitted claims to FEMA in the amount of $5,461,356. Only a fraction of the over 30 work orders have been reimbursed, said Crane.
In hopes of speeding up the reimbursement process, the borough plans to distribute a copy of the resolution to Gov. Chris Christie, Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, Congressman Frank LoBiondo, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate, State Sen. Christopher J. Connors, State Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove, State Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and every other municipality within Ocean County.
“Perhaps if they start sending similar requests, maybe we’ll get some action,” said Crane. “It’s very, very discouraging. It’s almost like working in the trenches with these people. Every six months you get a new group of people that come out, and they start from scratch again.
“You can’t get frustrated. You have to just dig in and keep providing them the information because I believe, from at least a municipal standpoint, it’s a war of attrition. If you give in, they win. So we have to keep at it,” he said. “We have $4.5 million at stake, and for a small town like us, with a little over a $9 million budget, that’s a lot of money. So we’re hopeful we can maybe get a little attention by this resolution, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Plans to fix the storm-damaged bulkhead in front of the Borough Emergency Operations Center on Pelham Avenue are also in progress.
“We really need to go ahead with this and replace this bulkhead, and hope that some portion of this will eventually, down the road, be reimbursed to us by FEMA,” said Crane.
Six contractors submitted bids for the project in excess of $400,000 last Thursday. The borough has accepted a bid from KG Marine Contracting in Manahawkin, which offered the lowest bid, at $303,492.
Although Mayor Robert Keeler expressed his frustration with the prevailing wage in government contracting for town projects, he said the local government is trying to get the town back in order following Sandy, and noted other important projects, such as fixing the municipal building, have had to be put on hold.
In other meeting news, the council introduced an ordinance to remove exemptions for temporary demolition containers and homeowner trash and recycling containers from the requirement that such containers be covered at all times.
The borough is also actively recruiting beach badge checkers, especially mature individuals and other people interested in checking beachgoers at the entrances of the beach.
“We believe this may encourage more people to do the right thing and buy their seasonal beach badge, which again simply goes to offset the cost of providing the wonderful lifeguard service that we all have come to enjoy, the cleaning of the beach and other things,” said Crane. “We really make very little by way of profit on this, but the beach is our biggest asset, and we will continue to promote that.”
For the first time, the public works department is also seeking full-time, seasonal laborers. These positions are usually filled by this time of year, said Crane.
The council also encouraged local residents to join in the town’s upcoming events, including this weekend’s third annual wine festival; the Memorial Day parade and service on Saturday, May 26; the first annual Hop Sauce Festival on Saturday, May 31; and the 10th annual Corvette Show on Sunday, June 1.
A proclamation was announced for Municipal Clerks Week in May, and the council honored Beach Haven Borough Clerk Sherry Mason.
“The vital services of this town, the education that you have given me personally and the help you’ve given to the council have been extraordinary. You have far surpassed, I think, what these things just represent in mere verbiage,” said Councilman James White.
Another proclamation was also given, for National Maritime Day on May 22.
“Whether equipping our service members in the theater of war or guiding our maritime industry in the calm of peace, the United States Merchant Marine has helped keep America strong for more than two centuries. Let us mark this day by reflecting on that legacy of service, honoring the men and women who forged it and saluting the proud mariners who carry it forward today,” the proclamation reads.
The council granted a plaque to Deborah Whitcraft and Jim Vogel, curators of the New Jersey Maritime Museum, as well as Annette Schreiber, whose father was a merchant mariner.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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