Tornado, flood costs will continue to swell, Jefferson City administrator says
Jefferson City Administrator Steve Crowell will present a summary of the costs associated with the natural disasters that have struck the city.
The estimate, which includes the costs of the May 22 tornado and the weeks of flooding in the city, is $4,224,559.
In the document, the costs are sorted into both actual and anticipated expenditures.
“There are some actual costs in there, like salaries, and those will continue on as we have other functions related to that,” said Crowell. “Then, there’s some anticipated costs. For example, with the airport, we don’t know what those costs are going to be yet, but we’re going through that process.”
The city manager told ABC 17 News Monday that the document is evolving as more information is gathered.
“It’s not the cost that we will be submitting to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). It’s not a total cost of the tornado and the flooding. It’s not our insurance costs. It’s not a lot of things and it’s not the final cost because I know they will be increasing,” said Crowell.
City Council members learned about how the recovery is progressing and how it will affect the city’s finances.
The document said the following with regard to how it plans to recoup the funds:
“Staff continues to work with FEMA and SEMA and other agencies for eligible reimbursement funding; reviewing mitigation funding opportunities; developing Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG DR) funding requests; and exploring economic development funding opportunities. City Council may want to consider engaging a consultant with specific disaster related funding experience to assist with the aforementioned and in identifying and submitting grants and/ or funding requests for other potential community related projects.”
The full memo can be viewed by following this link.
Planning Manager Eric Barron updated the city council about the repair and demolition status of buildings damaged by the tornado.
Barron said 23 buildings in the Jackson Street corridor will require demolition or have already been torn down.
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