The city of Byrnes Mill ended up footing the majority of the bill to repair Franks Road after part of it collapsed and was closed to traffic following heavy flooding in April 2017.
City Administrator Debbie LaVenture said the repairs cost a total of $303,777, and a second phase of repairs would have cost an additional $280,223 but has been called off.
LaVenture said city officials had been told that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Agency would reimburse the city more than $500,000 for both phases.
However, the city was reimbursed for only part of a temporary repair to the road, which cost $66,374 and was completed in June 2017, when one lane of the road was reopened.
FEMA and SEMA paid $58,111 toward the temporary repairs, LaVenture said.
She said phase one of the road repair was completed in June 2018, when the entire road was reopened, and cost $231,542.
The city received no reimbursement for that phase of the project.
“FEMA denied us (for further reimbursement),” she said. “I appealed three times and they denied us each time.”
The city ended up using $237,403.25 from its share of the countywide 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements to cover the cost of the repairs.
Public Works supervisor Bob Schmidt said phase one of the repairs included repairing the washed away road and building a retaining wall with drainage.
He said plans for phase two included building another retaining wall below the roadway.
LaVenture said the city paid $5,861 for engineering plans for phase two, but Byrnes Mill officials decided against completing that phase of repairs since the city got no reimbursement for phase one.
Schmidt said phase two is not necessary and the city only planned to complete it when reimbursement was available.
“Once we had that design done then all of a sudden the money disappeared,” he said.
LaVenture said she knew FEMA and SEMA would not cover the whole project but was hoping they would reimburse the city for 75 percent to 85 percent of the costs.
“We have that much less to delegate to other road projects,” she said.
American Rescue Plan Act
After fighting with FEMA and SEMA to be reimbursed for the Franks Road project, city officials have decided to hire a consultant to handle all the American Rescue Plan Act funding it has received, LaVenture said.
“It’s dealing with the federal government again,” she said. “The amount of time that it would take me to look into it and then if I didn’t do it properly the chance of having to pay it back was greater than paying a consultant.”
“Today we have received a little over $305,000 and expect to get another $305,000 in September,” LaVenture said.
The Board of Alderpersons voted 5-0 April 6 to hire Baker Tilly US LLP of Chicago, IL. to oversee the ARPA funds.
LaVenture said Baker Tilly’s contract did not have a set fee, but it will not exceed $10,000.
Ward 1 Alderman Glenn LaVenture was not at the meeting.