WESTFIELD – The City Council discussed the cost of the debris removal work following the freak Oct. 29 snowstorm that ripped down trees and limbs across the region.
The city is looking at a total cost of over $2 million for the recovery effort and about $600,000 for the debris removal work.
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley addressed the City Council Thursday night on the progress the city has made in removing debris.
“Today we’re over 60 percent done with the first sweep,” Daley said. “We’re asking residents to bring out all of the brush to the tree belt by Sunday, Nov. 27, to facilitate the final sweep.”
Debris removal trucks will follow the solid waste (trash) trucks during the week of Nov. 28 through Dec. 2.
“That is how we will ensure we get every residence,” Daley said.
Daley and Superintendent of Public Works Jim Mulvenna met with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials last week to determine the best course of action to clear brush from city streets.
“We had to decide if we would go with the FEMA program or continue to do it ourselves with local contractors,” Daley said. “The DPW had already made our streets passable.”
“The problem with going with the FEMA program is that not only would we have to hire contractors, but we’d also have to hire a company to manage those contractors, and we’d have to hire monitors to document the debris collection work,” Daley said. “We disqualified a lot of the debris being picked up from residents’ yards from the FEMA reimbursements.”
“The city would have to pay triple, under the FEMA program, as it is costing to do ourselves,” he said.
“By next week, we will have spent between $500,000 and $600,000, so we’re a million dollars better than if we had gone with the FEMA program. We’ve saved residents a lot of money and have a better managed program because it was kept local.”
Daley said the city will seek reimbursement, at a 75 percent rate, from FEMA for the first 70 working hours of the recovery effort. FEMA requires much less document during that initial response than after the 70-hour limit.
Daley said the city spent about $2.2 million during that initial 70-hour emergency response period, funds which qualify for the FEMA 75 percent reimbursement
“The bulk of that, $1.8 million was spent by the (Westfield Gas & Electric) Department for crews, equipment, services and accommodations,” Daley said. “There is also another $300,000 to $400,000 in expenses to the Department of Public Works, Emergency Management Department, Police and Fire Departments that will qualify for the FEMA funding.”
Daley said residents should have their brush debris out on the tree belt, but not blocking either sidewalks or roadways, and asked that residents not park vehicles next to the tree belt on their trash collection day.
“People know when their trash is collected and I hope they will not park in the street that day and block access to the debris removal crews,” he said.
Daley said that city crews are also removing “hangers” and “leaners” along streets – branches that are broken, but which are still hung up in other branches and utility wires.
“Because city employees are doing that work, we anticipate another savings of about a half million dollars,” he said.
