County receives federal funding for snow damage

President Obama has declared the aftermath of the blizzard of Dec. 26–27, 2010, a “major disaster” in New Jersey. Mercer County was included in a list of 13 counties affected by the president’s declaration.

On Feb. 4, 2011, a White House statement announced the New Jersey Disaster Declaration and that federal aid “is available to the State and eligible local governments on a cost-sharing basis for emergency protective measures, including snow assistance, for a continuous 48-hour period during or proximate to the incident period.”

New Jersey declared a state of emergency on Dec. 26 when parts of the state were covered with up to 32 inches of snow. Nearly three times the historical year-to-date average of snowfall has hit the state so far.

Mercer County Freeholder Andrew Koontz noted that this winter is extremely unusual. “I’ve been in Princeton for 18 years, and I’ve never seen this kind of considerable snowfall,” he said. “I think it is appropriate for the federal government to help and offset some of these unusual costs that we’ve incurred.”

After the snowstorm, the Mercer County Office of Emergency Management worked to assess damages and submitted their findings to qualify for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Koontz also noted that he felt the timing of this winter’s storm was particularly unfortunate, pointing to the “tough economic times where municipalities have been doing their best to try to keep taxation low.” More storms will mean that the county will be forced to take away from other budgets in order to help damages, he explained.

Usually in winter, the county “use[s] about 4,500 tons of road salt, and to date [it has used] almost 7,000 tons,” said Julie Willmot, Mercer County’s media contact. “Technically, we have already exhausted this year’s budget amount, and we’re already into Feburary.”

As Koontz pointed out, however, “You can’t exactly say, ‘Oh, well, we’ve exhausted that budget line item so we can’t remove the snow any longer.’ They can’t do that. They need to remove the snow.”

Snow removal for local areas can be especially taxing due to the sheer amount of labor that must go into it. According to University spokeswoman Emily Aronson, better weather forecasting systems have “allow[ed] staff to better prepare to manage the snow and keep snow cleared from walkways and steps.”

The forecasts do not change the amount of work it takes, however. In an e-mail, Aronson mentioned that crews must “pre-treat roads with a salt water solution,” and then after snowfall, Ground and Building Maintenance staff members are “responsible for clearing 10 miles of roads, more than 50 miles of walkways and more than 2,500 steps that connect walkways.” The entire cleaning usually takes about six hours.

Overtime work is particularly hard on the county budget, and with the quantities of snow this year, more labor is also required, especially in areas such as Princeton Township where there is not enough space to put the snow.

“That requires that you have your crews clearing your roads and then days later addressing the excess snow and removing it in this very laborious process,” Koontz said. He added that due to lack of space for snow, the Borough has had a harder time than the county.

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FEMA will now analyze all of the data in order to determine how much funding each of the qualified counties will receive. This process can take time, however. Willmot noted that the county just recently received reimbursement for the storms last March.