Carter County gets nearly $1.5 million back in Helene reimbursements so far

ELIZABETHTON — With the federal government shutdown over, the Carter County government has started seeing reimbursements for some of the expenditures the county incurred in its response to Hurricane Helene. On Monday night, Carter County Finance Director Carolyn Watson reported to the Budget Committee of the Carter County Commission that the county has now received $1,459,867.45 in reimbursement money. More than half of that money is coming from the bank stabilization funding of the United State Department of Agriculture. That program returned $800,446.20 to the county for some of the most eroded river banks from the storm. The best part about that reimbursement is that 100% of the costs are picked up by the federal government. The program is essential to the rebuilding of roads in the mountainous portions of the county that were damaged by the storm. The stabilization of the banks were necessary before the roads could be replaced, just as the construction of a house comes after the foundation is built. The county has also received a reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency of $260,864.25. Watson told the committee that more is in the pipeline. The amount reimbursed represents 75% of the cost of the projects. The remaining amount was borne by the county and by the state, with each paying 12.5% of the cost. The remaining amount of the reimbursement is coming from the state, in the form of $398,557. Some members of the committee were concerned about how much of the reimbursement costs will eventually be picked up by FEMA. Watson said FEMA's reimbursements so far have included everything the county thought it should receive. She said there are certain requests the federal government will reject. She said anything that would be considered a "double dip" would be denied. That includes expenditures that have already been covered by such things as insurance payments. Watson told the committee there were a lot of different categories in which the county requested reimbursements from FEMA, so there may be somethings in all those areas that gets denied, but so far the county has received 100% of what it expected. In other matters, the county received awards for two additional road repairs. The roads are Teaberry Road and Willard Perkins Road. The committee was also told that work is beginning on installation of a temporary bridge over Stoney Creek on Ensor Cemetery Road. This is a bridge replacement project that is not related to damage caused by Hurricane Helene. The old bridge had simply not received approval from the Tennessee Department of Transportation during its last inspection and had been closed.