Council approves transfers to cover snow cleanup

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A payloader works to clear snow from Center Street in Prospect Feb. 11.-RA ARCHIVE
A payloader works to clear snow from Center Street in Prospect Feb. 11.-RA ARCHIVE

PROSPECT — Like snow being moved off a road, the town had to move money from one account to another to pay for the work done during the February blizzard.

Mayor Robert Chatfield presented the Town Council with transfer requests during its Feb. 19 meeting.

The transfers, which were unanimously approved by the council, totaled $98,244 — the cost incurred from clearing the roads during and after the blizzard.

The money was transferred from four different funds —  $30,000 from the road reconstruction fund, $1,000 from the open space fund, $2,000 from the Hotchkiss House fund and $65,244 from the general fund.

The money went towards the cost of labor for police and snow removal, maintenance, parts, and contractors.

The town will be reimbursed some of the money it lost through FEMA, Chatfield explained. FEMA will reimburse the town up to 75 percent of its most expensive continuous 48 hours of the storm. However, the money spent on maintenance and parts, which is about $47,000 of the $98,244 will not be eligible for reimbursement, he said.

Once the money has been reimbursed from FEMA, the funds that had money transferred out of them will have money put back into them, Chatfield explained.

Chatfield said that part of the cost from the storm came from hiring three payloaders for nearly 110 hours total to help with the clean up. These three were in addition to the plows and the town’s payloaders that were on the roads, he said.

This is not the first time the town has had to do this, Chatfield explained. During the surprise Halloween snowstorm in 2011 the town had to transfer money out of various accounts to pay for all the snow removal.