By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
The cost to clean up after Hurricane Sandy is $127,000 and climbing, but Lawrence Township officials have learned the township is eligible for partial reimbursement of those costs by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun said the storm has already cost $25,000 in overtime salary and wages for the Lawrence Township Police Department and $102,500 for the Lawrence Township Department of Public Works in overtime and other expenses.
The expenditures, which are anticipated to exceed $127,500, were not anticipated in the 2012 municipal budget and they will have to be paid for out of the proposed 2013 municipal budget, Mr. Krawczun said.
”At the same time, it has come to our attention that we will be (reimbursed) for overtime for 60 days from the date of the significant event, and we will be reimbursed for 30 days for regular time spent on storm-related matters,” he said. The beginning date is Oct. 26.
If a street sign needs to be repainted, it is considered routine maintenance and the time spent would not be eligible for FEMA reimbursement, Mr. Krawczun said. But if a DPW worker spent time replacing a sign that was knocked down during the storm, those hours would be reimbursable, he said.
FEMA reimbursement is anticipated to be 75 percent of the storm-related costs, and the rest will be picked up by the municipality, Mr. Krawczun said. Lawrence Township is on record for filing a claim with the federal agency, he said, adding that it has six months to submit a claim.
Sandy resulted in numerous trees and wires blown down. Some of the trees blocked roads and some fell on houses, cars and trucks. Main Street/Route 206 was closed for several days when a tree fell down across it, near the U. S. Post Office at Craven Lane.
Police evacuated several motels on Brunswick Pike in advance of the storm, relocating the residents to safer locations in Trenton. The motels had flooded occasionally during previous hurricanes.
The downed trees also caused power outages, which lasted for several days. The loss of utilities meant residents of the Lawrence Plaza, Brookshire and Carriage Park developments had to be relocated. The developments are aimed at senior citizens.
For those residents who chose to “shelter in place,” the Lawrence Township Public School District which had already decided to close the schools opened its facilities so they could re-charge their electronic devices and take a shower.

