Leslie Haase, city finance director, presented a recap of storm rescue and recovery details Monday night to the City Council.
"As we are approaching the five-year anniversary, this is probably a good time for it," she said.
An anniversary observance is planned with a number of events starting May 13 and culminating May 22.
Haase told the council this week that she filed a claim for $8.432 million last week with the State Emergency Management Agency. SEMA will study the claim and forward it to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
It is the second part of a total claim for city costs associated with the disaster. A claim for $8.824 million had already been submitted and the city has received that money, according to her report to the council.
There will be four infrastructure repair projects that are not yet started for which FEMA may pay some of the cost, but much of it will be covered by the city's disaster recovery money from $158 million in Community Development Block Grant money. Haase said requests to extend the deadline for finishing tornado projects has been filed for those four repairs.
Asked by a council member how long it would be before the $8.432 million claim is paid, Haase said it could be months or even years.
State Auditor Nicole Galloway's audit report of the city had criticized the time it has taken the city to file its reimbursement claims, saying the city might have hired an outside agency to take care of that business in order to return the money quicker to city coffers. The City Council had been asked by city staff in the past whether that should be done. The council had agreed that city staff should file the claims after the more pressing tornado recovery work finished to try to prevent a possible mistake that council members said an outside agency might make.
Audit examiners have been back in Joplin the past week conducting a follow-up review for results from the August report, in which Joplin's performance earned the lowest rating given by the auditor, that of "poor." A presentation on the follow-up findings will be delivered at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday on the fifth floor of City Hall, 602 S. Main St.
A measure to authorize city staff to file an application for a federal TIGER grant for a series of projects along 32nd Street that could total up to $25 million was approved. That measure was approved along with another to hire a Springfield engineering firm to prepare the application.
The proposal, by Dan Salisbury, assistant public works director, would involve a request for money to widen 32nd Street from Schifferdecker to Central City Road, build a railroad bridge at 32nd Street and Davis Boulevard, and install a right-turn lane at 32nd and Main streets along with sidewalk extensions and repairs where needed along 32nd from Range Line to Schifferdecker Avenue.
Work to widen West 32nd Street has been approved as one of the projects to be funded by city sales tax, but that money could be used as the match to get the other projects done if the federal government funds the grant application, the council was told.
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