Norwich
Although a presidential decree this month unlocked potential millions in Federal Emergency Management Agency aid for area municipalities, those funds are unlikely to go toward repairs to private property.
Town officials over the past month have received letters from residents like Jonathan Frishtick, of New Boston Road, whose driveway was sliced in two by an enormous hole created by a broken culvert that weekend.
In a July 13 letter included in the Selectboard packet, Frishtick said the repairs were likely to be “very expensive.” He noted that his property was not eligible for flood insurance and that he was unlikely to receive FEMA funds.
“I am asking you to come look for yourselves to see the magnitude of this damage and to discuss possible sources of funding to help me and others in my situation so we can do what’s right for our property as well as what’s right for the public safety of those living downstream and for the town’s infrastructure,” he said.
Town Manager Herb Durfee on Wednesday raised the possibility of asking the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, for help under its Emergency Watershed Protection program.
“The goal is to get funding for some of the driveways and stuff that they can’t get funding for,” Durfee told the board, referring to homeowners who are bearing repair costs.
Durfee said he didn’t know for sure whether it would be possible to secure that aid. But if NRCS said “no,” Durfee said, town officials and residents then could take that “no,” in combination with denials from homeowners’ insurance carriers, to FEMA in hopes “that FEMA might find some funding to help out.”
Board members voted, 4-0, to direct Durfee to request the emergency watershed assistance. Vice Chairman John Pepper was absent.
That request will trigger a visit to Norwich from NRCS officials to assess whether the damage is eligible, according to a letter to the town from USDA engineer Mike Lapointe.
“Our understanding of FEMA procedures since Tropical Storm lrene is that towns must attempt to get funding from all other sources before they will assist,” Lapointe said in the Aug. 9 letter.
“In order to meet this requirement, towns need to contact NRCS and request assistance under our EWP program,” he wrote. “ … If NRCS cannot fund the eligible sites or there are sites that do not meet our EWP program criteria then we would send a letter to the town stating that NRCS was unable to assist the town on those projects. FEMA would be the next step in the process.”
In other business, the Selectboard briefly discussed and rejected the idea of a 1 percent local option tax — something board members said they hadn’t expected to discuss that night.
This kind of tax can be approved by a town’s voters and could affect prices for such things as room and board, alcohol and restaurant sales. Hartford and Woodstock have approved local option taxes in recent years.
The topic took board members by surprise on Wednesday; Durfee said he had asked for it to be added to the agenda after a resident came to him requesting a discussion.
“My gut feeling on this is it’s a little unfriendly to Norwich businesses to impose a tax on this,” Layton said.
Other board members agreed, and they soon moved on without making a motion.
The Selectboard’s next regularly scheduled meeting is Sept. 13.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.