Still recovering from the storm

Late last month, the Village of Island Park received notice that it would be receiving money from the Federal Emergency Management Association for damages done to village property and equipment, and overtime accrued by village employees, during Hurricane Irene last year.

The village will be receiving approximately $110,000 Mayor James Ruzicka announced at the last Board of Trustees meeting on June 21 — significantly more than the $80,000 the village expected to receive.

“[The money] will go back into the general fund, but there will be the repair for the bulkhead down at the beach and the dock,” Ruzicka said. “Any equipment that was damaged or lost from the fire department, we’d have to recoup that.”

During the budget season, the village conservatively estimated that it would receive $80,000 in reimbursement from FEMA and included it in the budget. But the extra money is definitely welcome.

“I’d like to use some of it for tree work in the village,” said Ruzicka. “We have a lot of trees, and we don’t have the budget every year to increase our tree removal program.”

Ruzicka said one of the main reasons the village was able to get back so much from FEMA was because of the meticulous records kept by village employees. “I have to give credit to the girls in the office and our employees down at the village garage who kept track of everything,” he said.

Just the other week, before Masone Beach officially opened, workers were at the beach repairing the pier — one of the projects that was funded by the FEMA reimbursement.