West Kittanning Reimbursed for State of Emergency

Members of the West Kittanning Borough Council thanked Secretary/Treasurer Jeanee Englert for her work in obtaining reimbursement money for a state of emergency that was declared this past winter.

by Nathan Lasher

During a meeting of the West Kittanning Borough Council held yesterday evening, Council Secretary/Treasurer Jeanee Englert announced that the Borough will be receiving reimbursement money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after a state of emergency was declared after a February snow storm.

“I got information from FEMA that, from the declaration of emergency that we did back in February for the snow, we will be getting back approximately $11,978,” said Englert. “We requested a certain amount and that was based on pages of what equipment you use down to a very minute detail. We had the back-end go out of one of the vehicles. That cost us to get repaired, and we were totally reimbursed for that along with the man hours, the overtime, the salt, and the anti-skid. I don’t remember off-hand the total that I requested. We got a little bit more back. It was somewhere around $10,500 that I requested. They upgraded some of our amounts including the overtime and the equipment.”

After hearing about the reimbursement, other members of the Council thanked Englert for her efforts. “Thanks for going through all of that extra paperwork,” said Council President Cliff Neal. “We all really do appreciate that.”

Council Member Bernie Bowser agreed. “I’d like to commend this young lady,” he said. “As our secretary and treasurer she has done a super job with all of this paperwork. Nothing is more frustrating than doing paperwork and homework to try and gain money back that was spent at the time of disaster. In this case the disaster was declared immediately following the snow storm on that February day, and we were one of a few that filed a declaration of emergency. It didn’t take long, several days following that, for some of the other ones to come in and file likewise. Without the efforts of the secretary we wouldn’t have realized this money. This snow storm is history behind us, but I think it was a good training exercise in the efforts applied by our street department, our personnel, and our council persons to be able to keep the citizens in this municipality operational. It’s all history, and it’s tough to remember back that far, but I remember it fully, and we had a problem and we faced it. Once again, I congratulate you Ms. Secretary for doing this work and getting this money back.”

Later in the meeting, Englert explained what the money will be used for. “Some of the money from FEMA will have go to reimburse liquid fuels,” said Englert. “We paid for the salt and anti-skid from liquid fuels, so that money has to go back. The majority of the money is going to go into general fund.”

Also, during the meeting, the Council opened bids for paving work that will be done on various roads throughout the Borough. They received a bid from White’s Paving out of Worthington for $23,905.22 as well as a bid from Hager Paving out of Strattanville for $28,912. Ultimately, after reviewing the material, the job was awarded to the lower bidder, White’s Paving, by a unanimous vote.

“That’s a little cheaper that what last year’s was,” said Bowser. “The price looks excellent.”