Starke County Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler met with FEMA representatives last week to discuss flood damage to the county’s roads, bridges and culverts.
Ritzler told the Starke County Commissioners Monday night that there are three categories that the county qualifies for when it comes to reimbursement funding.
“There are debris removal events that we have to report and one of the smaller things. That’s only $3,200. We also have to report emergency protective measures. That’s mostly opening and closing the roads, repairing existing road closed signs, monitoring damage, and other emergency repairs. That total is $50,000. There are two category “C” lists. The first one is roads and bridges that display completed temporary repair. Six culverts and a lot of roadways are done at a current cost of $116,420,” said Ritzler.
He said the most important category is road and bridges permanent repairs.
“The wedging and pavement repairs is the most important one. You can see it’s the highest priced. That includes repairing Toto Road, Range Road and all of the roads that were significantly damaged – 700 North. We sat down for a couple of hours with FEMA the other day and went through all of these. They gave us a few more things that we have to submit to them and then we will be ready to get our reimbursement. Our permanent repairs total $1.4 million so the total of everything is just over $1.5 million.”
Ritzler noted that they are about halfway through the reporting requirements set forth by FEMA and they will be working on the rest of the report this week. All of the documentation will be submitted for reimbursement.
