LOUISVILLE, Ga. (WJBF) – Last week, the city of Augusta missed a critical deadline for full reimbursement for storm debris removal from FEMA.
Missing that deadline is also impacting one of our other local counties.
While debris trucks continue to pick up piles of debris in the city of Louisville, repair projects are in the works around the city.
“One of the major damages was at one of our airport hangers. We are now in the process of repairing that, and should be done soon,” said Mayor Jenny Smith.
The storm also destroyed the entertainment stage in the city park.
Instead of rebuilding it, city leaders are looking to “reimagine” the 15-year-old structure.
“This stage was such an important part of our community. But to rebuild it would be several hundred-thousand dollars. So right now, we are trying to determine with an architectural firm exactly how to rebuild it in terms of the structure and so on,” said Smith.
On the county level, more than 1 million cubic yards of debris have been picked up, stretching across Louisville, Wrens, and Wadley.
But County Administrator Jerry Coalson says by missing the deadline, the county is losing 17 to 18 thousand dollars a day.
“Obviously the city and county’s budget cannot continue to sustain that for much longer. We probably have another 150 to 200 thousand cubic yards still left on the ground, stumps and things like that that we need to pick up. But it’s going to start eating into our budget very quickly,” said Coalson.
Commission Chairman Mitchell McGraw says they have contacted state lawmakers because taxpayers will have to make up what won’t be reimbursed.
“Somewhere in the neighborhood of 225 to 300 thousand dollars out of taxpayers of Jefferson County’s money. We’ll have to put that on the millage rate, or come up with some way to pay for all of this that we haven’t gotten reimbursed from FEMA from,” McGraw said.
Coalson says the county is asking for an extension of at least 30 to 60 more days.
“If we just had another 30 to 60 days, we’ll be in a lot better shape,” Coalson said.
“This is going to be hard for all of us. Columbia County, Richmond, Burke, Washington, Jenkins–we’re all taking a hit by this. We’re pleading with President Trump to help us with this. He’s already signed off for Florida and North Carolina, but now we need him to help the hardworking taxpayers of Georgia that haven’t seen any disaster this bad before,” said McGraw.
While the city and county are waiting for help from the nation’s capital, leaders say they plan to keep making progress one day at a time.
