Henderson County is in the hole about $20 million, waiting for reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Hurricane Helene-related debris removal.
Commissioners discussed the issue at a Monday night meeting. The conversation came as state officials last week urged lawmakers to push the federal government to speed up the reimbursement process for rural counties that were impacted by Hurricane Helene.
North Carolina’s House Select Committee on Helene Recovery heard complaints from state and local leaders about slow reimbursement from FEMA during a July 30 meeting.
“There is a significant financial burden on communities that are heavily distressed as a result of [Helene]. Tens of millions of dollars for some of these communities just in debris,” North Carolina Emergency Management Director William Ray told state lawmakers.
Henderson County is in a particularly precarious spot after choosing to pay out of pocket and directly contract with debris removal companies, instead of using the Army Corps of Engineers, like most other WNC counties did.
“While I have the highest confidence that our federal representatives at FEMA will reimburse the county, the timeliness of it began to be a very serious concern,” County Manager John Mitchell told BPR News.
Since the storm, the county has been spending roughly $1.5 million a month contracting with Southern Disaster Recovery for debris removal. Commissioners believed that reimbursements from FEMA would come within weeks. They haven’t.
Now the county is using the State Mission Assigned Recovery Taskforce, or SMART, program in which debris is managed by a pre-approved contractor who bills the state. Counties throughout Western North Carolina – like Transylvania – have also elected to switch services from the Army Corps to the SMART program, which is contracted with Southern Disaster Recovery.
Mitchell told BPR News that residents should not see any interruption in debris removal services after the switch.
Commissioners Monday pushed county staff to continue to aggressively seek the reimbursement from FEMA.
“ I certainly don't want us to wake up in January and we're sitting here talking about it on a wing and a prayer, hoping to get that money,” County Commission Chair William Lapsley said. “Whatever we need to do, if we need to get in a car and drive to D.C. … this board is ready to do that.”
The county recently passed a $215.8 million budget that did not raise the tax rate, despite the economic downturn projected after the storm. The timing of the outstanding reimbursements leaves Lapsley “very concerned.”
“The local tax money that we collected for last year, we've spent. This is the low point, and it's going to take us four to six months to get full recovery, from a cash flow standpoint,” he told commissioners Monday.
