Aid helps cities, towns pay for damages resulting from last year’s winter cold.
LEWISTON – President Bush’s unprecedented disaster declaration for cold weather damages to Maine’s public utilities has resulted in $221,500 in reimbursements to six Androscoggin County communities.
The Androscoggin County Emergency Management Agency has disbursed federal funding to Lewiston and Auburn and the towns of Lisbon, Livermore Falls, Mechanic Falls and Sabattus for damages sustained to water and sewer systems caused by cold weather last winter.
“We still have Turner and Livermore. There is $2,245 still due to those communities,” said Androscoggin County EMA Director Joanne Potvin. Reimbursement for damages sustained in those two towns is delayed by insurance companies that have not made decisions.
When Bush issued the disaster declaration for Androscoggin and nine other Maine counties on May 14, it was the first time a president has declared a disaster for cold weather damages. In May, Lewiston Public Works Director Chris Branch called the landmark declaration “significant.”
It authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide assistance for damages to public utilities, equipment and buildings owned by state agencies, local governments, school districts, Native American tribes and some nonprofit agencies. The declaration covered all qualifying damages occurring after Dec. 17, 2002.
Lewiston and Auburn both qualified for reimbursement from FEMA. Both Branch and Auburn Water and Sewerage District Superintendent Norm Lamie reported significant damages by late spring, mostly broken water mains that required replacements of piping and costly labor hours.
“We were very fortunate. Maine is a cold state in the wintertime. We were very fortunate to get a disaster declaration,” Potvin said.
The program allowed eligible governmental entities to apply for funding from FEMA to cover up to 75 percent of losses to public utilities, public buildings and equipment owned by local governments.
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