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Nearly six months after a tornado cut through Monson on June 1, officials were still engaged in the painstaking process of seeking reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It’s a very complicated procedure,” Town Administrator Gretchen Neggers said. “We’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours filling out the required paperwork.”
Clean-up efforts on town-owned property are calculated at $6.4 million, with FEMA expected to reimburse 75 percent, Neggers said. Much of the work has involved clearing out debris from roads and public land, including uprooted trees two to three feet in diameter.
“We’re doing the best we can,” she said, “but it takes a toll on our normal operations, and it takes a toll on our staff. It’s really detracting from the normal management of the town.”
Still to be decided is whether to repair the town office building or build a new structure. The question will be decided either at a town meeting or by local referendum. Neggers and other town officials are working out of temporary space in an elementary school.
Throughout the community as a whole, the tornado caused an estimated $20 million in lost property value. Neggers said that building permits have been issued for projects that will restore about 65 percent of the lost value.
Neggers praised the state Department of Conservation and Recreation’s support of the community’s recovery efforts. She noted that Richard K. Sullivan, the state’s energy and environmental affairs secretary, took part in a tree-planting project in Monson on Oct. 15 and “got his hands dirty” alongside local volunteers.
Two weeks later, an unusually early October snowstorm felled more trees and caused lengthy power outages.
“We actually had the shelters open for a much longer time than we did after the tornado,” Neggers said.
It was the fourth time this year – beginning with a powerful storm last winter and including Tropical Storm Irene in late August – that Monson was included in a federal disaster area.