Seymour Selectmen voted on Tuesday (March 19) to set a special town meeting April 2 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss and vote on a $599,517 transfer to cover costs for cleanup from the Blizzard of 2013 and various other expenses.
The transfer would include $367,370 to cover expenses incurred in the blizzard’s aftermath, Finance Director Doug Thomas said following Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting.
The storm dumped more than two feet of snow in the lower Naugatuck Valley Feb. 8 and Feb 9. It took several days for municipalities to dig out from the storm due to the sheer amount of the snowfall.
Seymour’s transfer of funds would also include $81,146 for heating the former LoPresti School, and for repairs and police patrols at the school that has been vacant since students moved over to the new Chatfield-LoPresti School this past fall, as well as $110,000 for the legal settlements and workers’ compensation cases, Thomas said.
And a total of $41,000 would go for engineering costs for repairs to Chamberlain Road and Seymour Avenue.
Most of the money would come from the town’s fund balance, he said, and from revenues, including $260,000 in tax sales and a projected $188,500 blizzard reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Fortunately, we have the revenues coming in,” Thomas said.
A total of $25,000 would come from regular fund balance money, and the remainder from budget savings.
The town had budgeted $65,000 for snow plowing and $50,000 for materials, and those budgets have been depleted.
“Charlotte knocked it out,” Thomas said.
It cost the town $184,824 to pay private contractors to remove snow following Charlotte.
Ansonia May Have Set Record
Ansonia may have broken a state record more than a century old in terms of the amount of snow that fell in a 24-hour period during the blizzard, according to Mayor Jim Della Volpe.
The National Weather Service is checking a report from one of their weather observers who recorded 36 inches of snow in Ansonia within 24 hours. If it stands — that’s the most snow that’s ever fallen in Connecticut in 24 hours.
That statistic may help Ansonia collect storm reimbursement funds from FEMA.
“We’ve gone well over our snow budget,” the mayor said.
Ansonia had budgeted $50,000 for snow removal, and the Board of Apportionment and Taxation approved a $90,000 transfer from the contingency fund.
“We may have to go back for more,” Della Volpe said.
Ansonia has received 63.5 inches of snow this winter and used 1,908 yards of salt and sand.
Derby makes blizzard transfer
The Derby tax board voted Feb. 27 to transfer $149,362 to cover costs incurred by the Department of Public Works and the Derby Fire Department during the blizzard.
The tax board moved money in the budget to cover $137,947.48 for the public works department for overtime and snow removal costs.
The tax board also transferred funds to cover $11,415.82 for the Derby Fire Department for storm standby duty.
The transfer will replenish the budget, Mayor Tony Staffieri told the Valley Indy Wednesday (March 20).
The snow removal and materials budget hasn’t been depleted yet, Staffieri said.
Derby Finance Director Thomas Thompson said during the tax board’s Feb. 27 meeting that the transfers leave $91,282 remaining in the city’s ​“special working balance,” a fund the city uses to pay for unexpected occurrences, such as a blizzard.
Tax board chairman Jim Butler said that city officials are applying for storm reimbursement by submitting paperwork for the two days during which the city spent the most money on the storm.
Derby could see that dollar amount reimbursed to the tune of 75 percent, Butler said.
$360,000 For Private Contractors In Shelton
In Shelton, Aldermen last month approved spending $40,000 from the city’s general fund to cover storm-related expenses, with the caveat that more bills could be coming in.
They did.
Aldermen appropriated an additional $354,500 to cover snow removal costs at their regular meeting March 14.
Mayor Mark Lauretti said Friday (March 22) the total bill for blizzard cleanup is about $580,000.
About $360,000 of that total was to hire private contractors to clean up the snowfall.
Overtime for public works employees and fire department standby costs made up most of the balance.
The unprecedented strength of the blizzard drove the cost, he said.
“We don’t budget that kind of money for snow removal,” Lauretti said. ​“We haven’t spent that kind of money in probably six years.”
With the budget for plowing already stretched, the mayor hoped the city has seen the end of snowstorms for the year, but isn’t taking anything for granted.
“I’m starting to wonder,” Lauretti said. ​“Where’s Al Gore when you need him?”