Focusing On Towns, Shumlin Plans State's Long-Term Irene Recovery

(Host) State government has lots of expertise but little money to offer to towns rebuilding after Tropical Storm Irene.

That was the word Tuesday from the Shumlin administration. So instead of financial aid, officials announced a series of regional meetings to focus recovery efforts statewide.

VPR's John Dillon has more:

(Dillon) Governor Peter Shumlin says the best ideas for rebuilding towns hit hard by the flooding have come from the communities themselves.

He says one goal of the regional meetings is to tap into those ideas at the local level.

(Shumlin) "We want to harness that energy, harness the local community planning and the efforts to rebuild better than the way she found us by putting together what we're calling the Community Recovery Partnership."

(Dillon) The first meeting will be held next week in the Mad River Valley, where several communities were heavily damaged by the flood.

Noelle MacKay is commissioner of economic, housing and community development. She says officials will ask fundamental questions as they help towns develop their recovery plans.

(MacKay) "What are their goals for the future? What issues are they struggling with? Where do they have capacity? And where is the gap in capacity to meet their needs? And we're going to do that with folks from the Agency of Transportation, our Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the Agency of Human Services, and the Agency of Natural Resources."

(Dillon) While these officials can offer their time and expertise, the state probably won't be opening its checkbook.

The state recently reduced its estimates for how much it will cost to fix roads. But Neale Lunderville, the state's chief recovery officer, says the state is still looking at at least a $96 million repair bill.

(Lunderville) "Under any scenario the state is going to have to dig deep to find money to aid its rebuilding and repairing of Irene-damaged assets. So it's a time when we know a lot of folks are going to be hard-pressed to find additional money. But we can be creative. We can draw down private money where it's available."

(Dillon) Officials estimate towns could face at least $140 million dollars in needed repairs to their roads and bridges.

But there is some good news on the local financial front. Shumlin said he's confident towns will eventually get reimbursed by the federal government for the cost of most their road work.

He says the Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to cover 90 percent of that, with the state providing an additional 5 percent.

For VPR News, I'm John Dillon in Montpelier.