HIGHTSTOWN: Town won’t seek FEMA money

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — Council agreed to stop pursuing FEMA money during its meeting on Aug. 18.
Nearly three years have passed since Hurricane Irene struck Hightstown as a tropical storm and damaged the Borough Hall complex. The facility has remained closed.
Council member Robert Thibault said he was one of the members who requested the discussion to be placed on the agenda for the evening.
"I thought it was time for an update," said Mr. Thibault. "We haven’t talked about what’s going on with the insurance company. We haven’t talked about what’s going on with the FEMA money."
Mayor Steven Kirson noted that there has been a series of meetings over the last year.
"The State of New Jersey hired these consultants to represent municipalities with FEMA," said Mayor Kirson. "They’ve been quite unproductive. Every time we met there has been another twist and turn."
He noted that at the last meeting they were informed they could look at an "auxiliary plan."
"We would need to have a very detailed description architecturally and the engineering to present to FEMA," he said. "We would be spending in the range $70,000 to $75,000 because it has to go through a very detailed of what you want to build."
He noted that they would be entitled to $800,000 at the maximum "under what they told us."
"Even FEMA would take a half a million dollar deductible because we did not have flood insurance," he said. "The option is do we want to go and spend $75,000 to maybe grab maybe $300,000. It will take a year or two down the road. I don’t think it’s a very exciting option."
Business Administrator Henry Underhill noted that it "absolutely had to be in the same footprint."
"If you’re convinced not to put it in the same footprint there’s no sense going after the money either," said Mr. Underhill. "It doesn’t seem to be a viable option."
Council member Denny Hansen noted that "they started alluding to that it wouldn’t have to been in the same location."
"So we continued these discussions, there’s been four since December, because it started looking like you couldn’t just let go of this discussion if there was any possibility," said Ms. Hansen. "You don’t want to walk away from money but as they proceeded each time they were pretty final on what they were saying…now it has to be in the same location."
Mr. Underhill noted going to any other site "would be a gamble."
"They have to do a special approval for you to be off site versus that footprint," he said. "I think you have seen in the time you have dealt with them that’s it’s not easy to deal with them. If they have any way from getting out from paying it they’re not going to pay it."
I don’t think we have a large chance of getting any significant funding out of FEMA at this point to warrant spending $75,000, he added.
Mr. Thibault questioned an earlier decision made by council to continue to pursue FEMA.
"Do we want to change that and say forget it?," he said.
Council President Susan Bluth responded "yeah."
"We’ve already established that the interest for the same footprint isn’t there," said Ms. Bluth. "Do we need a resolution?"
Mr. Thibault noted that a resolution was not done last time.
Borough Attorney Frederick Raffetto noted that policy is a statement in the record.
Mayor Kirson asked each council member if there were still interested in pursuing FEMA money.
"With FEMA it’s not like they come onboard to help you," said Council member Larry Quattrone. "It’s like how do we get out of this. You get this impression when you sit down and talk with them that they are trying to figure a way to get out."
He noted that it was "mind-boggling."
"It’s like dealing with the regular insurance, well we can’t do that, we can’t do this," he said. "Well, what can you do. Never have an answer."
Lexington Insurance has sent the borough an estimate of $1.9 million to rebuild or refurbish the Borough Hall, as previously reported.
"At this point three years later let’s cut our losses," Mr. Thibault said.
Council member Seth Kurs abstained from the vote stating that he is "hasn’t had a chance to review any of the documents from FEMA and I ‘m not informed enough to make a vote."
"At this juncture, FEMA is out," he said, adding it will be put on the agenda next month.