Politics & Government
Wilmette May Receive Aid for Blizzard Expenses
FEMA may provide financial assistance for costs in municipalities across Cook County
Wilmette may benefit from disaster funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and recoup some of its costs from .
Gov. Pat Quinn requested Monday that Cook County, along with 60 other counties, be declared a federal disaster area. There were 284 applicants—from taxing districts to municipalities to school districts—in Cook that applied for more than $22 million in storm expenses, which included snow removal and overtime. For Illinois to qualify for this request, Cook County had to show there were at least $17.6 million in costs over a period of 48 hours.
Wilmette accounted for $148,870 of that sum, said village manager Tim Frenzer. A breakdown of those expenses includes:
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- $55,000 for contractual snow removal and hauling
- $28,000 for overtime paid to public works employees
- $14,000 for salt
- $10,000 for motor fuel
Frenzer said the charge for snow removal is in some ways a good sign because it means the village partnered with private contractors to clean up, instead of paying for that service all year.
"That's a good thing," Frenzer said. "It means you're buying the contractual service when you need it and not buying it when you don't need it over the rest of the year."
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There's also about $25,000 in what Frenzer called "comp time," where employees can take paid leave instead of overtime, which doesn't create an out-of-pocket cost.
Frenzer said federal grant dollars can pay for as much as 75 percent of the total estimated costs.
FEMA will now review the submissions and determine what costs it will reimburse, but there's no official timetable for any eventual payout.
"FEMA can take as long to look at it as they need," Frenzer said, pointing to the agency's processing of last summer's floods. Municipalities didn't find out until this past winter that they wouldn't qualify for aid. Frenzer hopes the verdict will be different for Wilmette.
"We've already covered these costs from our general fund operating budget," he said. "If we're reimbursed, it goes back into our reserves. We'd prefer to have it, but this is what reserves are there for—extraordinary events like this."
