GI getting checks for October storm

Story and photos by Karen Keefe
Grand Island Dispatch, April 6, 2007

Twenty-four members of the Grand Island High School DECA Club received a proclamation from the Town Board recognizing their recent successful showing at a state career conference. Students won 15 medals and three trophies. With the students are their parents, as well as business teacher and DECA adviser Cheryl Chamberlain and Grand Island High School Principal Sandra Anazlone.

It’s payback time for some hard times back in October. Grand Island is receiving three checks totaling $264,664.35 to compensate for expenses the town racked up while coping with the October Surprise snowstorm and its aftermath.

Councilwoman Mary Cooke pointed out at Monday’s Town Board meeting that the state’s Emergency Management Office had sent the first installment to reimburse Grand Island for town funding expended on the clean-ups during the storm emergency. Three-fourths of the money in the first installment is from the federal government, and the rest is comprised of state and administrative funds.

“It does represent the first of the money that we’re getting back from the work that we did in the storm – the cleanup,” Cooke said. “Just to let people know that that is coming through – all the stuff you saw on TV and heard on the radio and read in the papers about FEMA helping out and the federal and state taxes coming back to the town is actually happening.” The first check was mailed on March 29, the second on April 2 and the third on April 3, the state Emergency Management Office confirmed.

400,000 Without Power

The lake-effect storm on Oct. 12-13, 2006, dumped up to 20 inches of snow on Western New York and left 400,000 area residents without power in its wake. It’s estimated that 70 percent of the Island was without power, some for as much as four days, while off the Island, in the hardest hit areas, power was out for almost two weeks. Grand Island’s Highway Department employees worked around the clock in the initial days after the storm, clearing roads first of snow, then of all the debris from downed trees and limbs. Besides the overtime, the town also had to rebuild a sewer lift station that was flooded in the storm and purchase a chipper to handle the debris. The dollar figure Grand Island will receive is exact compensation for all costs the town accounted for, including the labor, equipment and associated costs.

Grand Island Fire Chief Greg Butcher accepts a proclamation from the Town Board in honor of National Public Safety Telecommunication Week, April 8-14.

In other action, the Town Board:

•Issued a proclamation in honor of National Public Safety Telecommunication Week, April 8-14. Grand Island Fire Chief Greg Butcher accepted the proclamation on behalf of the communicators who serve as a vital link between the residents and the town’s emergency service providers.

•Issued a proclamation honoring the 24 DECA marketing and business students who competed in a recent state career conference and brought home a total of 15 medals and three trophies. The students competed in such areas as travel and tourism, sports and entertainment marketing and decision-making.

•Adopted a resolution establishing a procedure to collect in advance an alternative recreation fee for subdivisions seeking a waiver of the requirement to dedicate land within the subdivision for recreation purposes. If the waiver is not granted, or if the Town Board requires a dedication of land for recreation purposes, the fee will be reimbursed.

•Authorized Supervisor Peter McMahon to sign an amendment extending the state funding for the Scenic Woods/Bicentennial Park Master Plan project through Dec. 31 of this year.

•Authorized Town Highway Superintendent Raymond Dlugokinski to bid for one new 2008 light duty 4-by-4 truck cab and chassis; one new 2008 9-foot all-season dump box; and one new 2008 small pavement roller.

Seasonal Workers Hired

•Authorized Recreation and Parks Director Linda Tufillaro to attend a state recreation and parks conference in Buffalo on April 23.

•Authorized Tufillaro to hire nine returning part-time workers, one new part-time employee and 11 part-time seasonal workers.

•Authorized the renewal of special use permits for three Global Signal towers, one at 318 Baseline Road at the water plant, one at Bedell and the bike path and one at 3078 Staley Road.

•Accepted with regret and issued a certificate of appreciation the resignation of Maise Dommell from the Citizens Corps/CERT.