Repairs to Birds Bridge in Greene County should be complete later this summer, but FEMA and the county are now at odds over payment for the project.
Members of the Insurance Committee were told Wednesday and Budget and Finance Committee members were updated Thursday on claims by FEMA that the process of using state aid funds to get the work started effectively voided the majority of FEMA’s 75% payment of the $3.2 million dollar project. FEMA contends their contribution would only be $91,000, which would leave the county on the hook for the remainder of the money.
Mayor Morrison also told the committees FEMA says there were preexisting conditions on the deck of the bridge that had been inappropriately repaired, which means the $91,000 could be reduced even further.
While Budget and Finance was discussing the matter Thursday afternoon, the mayor received an update confirming discussions between Jonathan Lake of FEMA and local representative Tim Hatcher. They told Road Superintendent Kevin Swatsell and Assistant Superintendent Gary Rector if they could get a letter from TDOT stating that the intent of the state aid funds and how they were used was to basically get the project moving while awaiting FEMA reimbursement, then they should be able to reinstate the 3.2 million on that project. So, Morrison says, Swatsell is working on that with his contact with TDOT in an effort to set the project back on track and not take away any of the state aid funds. Morrison calling it a wait and see situation.
Of note but not directly related to this story, is clarification on road repair work moving forward after the large trucks clearing debris leave the area. Radio Greeneville News has learned during meetings this year that while assistance will be given to the county for those repairs, it’s understood those monies will only cover repair of the roads based on the condition they were in prior to the storm cleanup, IE preexisting conditions.. The county will then have to decide a priority list for road repair.
MAYOR KEVIN MORRISON COMMENTS ON BIRDS BRIDGE SITUATION THURSDAY
“The bad news is the repair of Birds Bridge was about $3.4 million. The Highway Department elected to use their state aid road and bridge money to fund that project.
So, we got notified by FEMA that they look at that as an insurance policy. And we had this conversation at length with EMA and the Highway Department, an ongoing discussion that that probably shouldn’t be something that we did. But it was done anyway. Well that in essence, let FEMA off the hook. It let the federal government off the hook to pay their portion of the repair for that bridge. So instead of the 75% of the 3.2 (3.4) million that they would normally have been on the hook for, their contribution is the balance of about $91,000. So to further add insult to injury, we were also told that there was preexisting conditions on the deck of the bridge that had been inappropriately repaired. That said, the $91,000 contribution may be reduced even further because that was a preexisting condition. So, we revealed that to the insurance committee.
That doesn’t mean that the taxpayers are on the hook for it in terms of that we can’t do it, but money that could have been allocated to other more pressing projects, or other just as pressing projects, now has to be committed to that, and we don’t have use of those funds.
So when the road superintendent left, we provided him a copy of that, and he was going to reach out to some of the FEMA folks to see if that’s like cast in stone, or there’s something that can be done. But I will say that that’s the way they look at everything. That’s the way they have examined for instance, Kinser Park. Because we have insurance on Kinser Park, they asked us to utilize that policy before they kick in any assistance. They’re not going to let you double dip. So the money for instance coming to us, a lot of people are like why can’t we just allocate some of this money coming to Greene County to the victims that got their house washed away? Well, the way it works is, if we provide that money, then FEMA looks at it as an insurance policy and they reduce the amount that they give to the victim.”
