Sweeton and Maloney discuss FEMA aid
TOWN OF WARWICK – It took three years of convincing, but Warwick
Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton and Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney finally
got FEMA to agree to foot the $489,000 bill to replace a culvert pipe
carrying a stream under Brady Road. Since the storm, the road gradually
deteriorated as well resulting in the town blocking it off since the storm.
Sweeton gave Maloney a firsthand look at the storm damage on Tuesday.
Initially, FEMA offered to pay the town just $50,000 for the work, but
the local officials were able to convince the bureaucrats to up the ante.
Maloney said other storms will occur and the local infrastructure must
be ready to handle them.
? “The point is we know that these super storms are coming. We know
that we are seeing the climate change. We are seeing an increase in the
frequency and intensity of these storms. If we don’t do repairs
line this now we will regret it when the next storm comes, so it’s
not just about getting back on our feet still three years after these
storms. It’s about preparing for the next one,” Maloney said.
Sweeton said it was important to bring that road back to a good state
of repair.
“The road continued to deteriorate and our own investigation showed
that the pipes that were there were being undermined in the center, so
we were losing this road inches by inches while we had to deal with the
delay of FEMA,” he said.
Sweeton said work on the repairs could begin in the spring of next year
with completion by May.
