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Politics & Government

RTM Approves Special Irene Fund; Storm-Related Expenses Estimated Near $1 Million

The fund will not increase Branford's general fund budget, Finance Director Jim Finch says.

The Representative Town Meeting this week gave the town the legal authority to in the aftermath of by establishing a special fund to cover storm-related expenses.  It also authorized the transfer of $150,000 from the town’s contingency fund to it.

Rep. Sandra Reiners, who presented the motion to establish the fund, termed the occasion an extraordinary, one-time event. 

Both Reiners and Finance Director Jim Finch, who appeared before the RTM, cautioned that will rise, with Finch noting that the estimate of storm-related expenses has already risen to $978,000 – this, just since he appeared before the Board of Finance at the end of September  to first request the appropriation. 

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“The town does have cash.  It doesn’t have a liquidity problem because of this.  It doesn’t impact our capacity to pay our bills,” Finch said in a conversation after the meeting. 

Before the RTM on Wednesday, Finch, who noted that the town had held its second meeting with the earlier in the day, said he continues to project that the town would recoup, on average, roughly 65 percent of the monies it will spend on storm-related repairs. 

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He later said he expected that the town would receive its reimbursements from FEMA by the end of this fiscal year.

“Branford’s general fund budget is not increasing at this point at the result of last night’s action,” Finch said after the meeting.  “The money we’re spending is not part of the general fund budget that the RTM approved in May.”

At the meeting, the finance director said he is continuing to investigate the town’s role in the restoration of the seawall along heavily damaged .  There, the storm dislodged some of the rocks in the stone wall that curves along that scenic stretch of the coast.

Officially, care of the seawall is the responsibility of the which, as an erosion control board that protects the land seaward of Linden Avenue, has the legal authority to levy taxes on its members.  The land is commonly held by all members of the district, according to the district’s mission statement.

“With the various legal responsibilities, how does it play out? This is not black and white,” said Finch after the meeting, as he wondered which body - the town or the district - would cover which repairs to the wall.  “Without [the seawall] the road can’t be supported,” he remarked. 

“It’s like your milk in your coffee,” he mused of the mingling of responsibilities there. 

“Clearly, they have to be working in tandem,” he said of the town and the district.  “”From the one meeting I’ve had with the district, the district wants to make sure there’s an access to the 400 families [who live in that section of Branford], and that it’s aesthetically pleasing and that the repairs to the road have a permanent nature to them. 

“It’s been represented to me that the district has actually submitted an application to the state department of homeland security.  The state will contact FEMA.  They actually have a permit out," he said. “The town’s going to put the metal in there to hold it back.  Any other work on the wall would seem to be the district's responsibility,” said Finch, before noting that representatives from FEMA had now visited the wall twice. 

“The town’s going to secure the road.  At that point,” he said, “the town’s work is probably going to be done.”

In late September, the Board of Finance approved the establishment of the special fund the RTM has now put in place to cover the costs of storm-related repairs as well as the transfer of $150,000 to it. 

The $150,000 sum is expected to cover costs that are not funded by FEMA, insurance and transfers from the town’s sewer reserve fund, Finch said.

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