FEMA figures for state office complex expected Friday

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected Friday to provide the state with dollar figures for what it is willing to pay for the rebuilding of the Waterbury state office complex.
Since the complex was inundated by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, the state has scrambled to find working spaces for over a thousand state employees displaced by the flooding. At the end of November, lawmakers approved a design for a new $124.66 million state office building to house roughly 1,000 Agency of Human Services employees.
The state has been lobbying FEMA and providing detailed damage estimates for over a year on the critical issue of the reimbursement amount. Millions of dollars hang in the balance, which will have to be picked up by the state for the restoration and construction at the historic state office complex.
The FEMA determination for the office complex is slated to come one month after the federal agency provided a funding figure for the construction of five mental health facilities.
But, just as with the FEMA mental health funding assistance, the total FEMA allocation for the office complex will depend on the state’ s insurance reimbursements. Insurance and FEMA will cover a certain amount of the project costs, and the state will have to pay for 10 percent of whatever insurance does not cover. The state must also pay for those expenses that exceed the amount allotted by insurance and FEMA.
David Mace, spokesman for FEMA, said that while the agency plans to provide the state with this information on Friday, the feds would not make any guarantees.
‘ It’ s our plan at this time to do it,’ he said. ‘ We’ ve made it clear from the start this is the target date. If circumstances change, then that date will also change. But right now we plan to do it.’
by Andrew Stein February 5, 2013 vtdigger.org