Hurricane Irene was a dev­astating storm, but Strafford was particularly well suited to meet the challenge.

Around two years ago, after flash flooding in the Carpenter Hill area, the town used the FEMA process to repair roads and culverts and be­came fam­iliar with this fairly com­plex federal relief process.

Town Clerk Lisa Kendall and her assistant Regina Gioia were helped by the fact that Nikki Kendall had been hired for this year to get past records in order. Nikki was able to transfer her time and skills into working with them on the relief ef­forts and considerable volume of paper­work. Also, longtime selectboard mem­bers Steve Willbanks, who was also familiar with the FEMA process, and Rod Maclay, a re­tired state highway engineer, were aided in guiding the re­covery efforts by the organ­izational skills of board mem­ber Tori Lloyd. Lloyd, a recent law school graduate, was between jobs at the time and was able to donate countless hours to the task.

Finally, Bill Burden was an ex­tremely dedicated emergency man­agement coordinator.

The priority was getting things done quickly. Longtime Road Fore­man Jon Mackinnon’s know­ledge of the town roads, culverts, and bridg­es was invaluable.

Not only was the skill and dedica­tion of our own road crew put to the task, but many local heavy equip­ment operators were hired to repair the damage, which included a huge washout on Rte. 132 just before Furnace Flat. Work was needed on nine bridges, 11 culverts had to be replaced, and well over a thous­and loads of gravel and fill had to be hauled in.

The total bill at this time exceeds $1.7 million. Of that, the work on Rte. 132 should be re­imbursed 100%, and other ap­proved work at a rate of 90%.

There is, however, some ques­tion at this time if all the work that was done will be entitled to full reim­bursement. At the Feb­ruary 1 meet­ing of the select­board, Road Fore­man Makinnon reported that he had met with FEMA representatives and showed them three bridges. Two of them FEMA has so far not been will­ing to consider damaged to a degree requiring replacement or reimburse­ment.

FEMA has also decided not to fully reimburse the town for re-pav­ing the damaged section of Brook Road, arguing that since there was some photographic evidence of “al­ligatoring” (i.e. , pavement cracks) at the time of the flood , it means the pavement was already damaged and there­fore not entitled to full reim­bursement.

The cost of Irene to the town will for the most part probably not be in the town budget that will be voted at Town Meeting. The Strafford Select­board, which is usually very forth­coming, chose not to provide figures for this story, preferring the public wait until the Town Report comes out later this month.

However, the Selectboard has talked numerous times about cover­ing the costs of Irene, which will be well over $100,000 with a bond. Ac­cording to the minutes of the Janu­ary 12 meeting, both Bob Giroux of the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank and Paul Giuliani, the Town’s bond counsel, have advised the Town to wait until the final FEMA and state reimbursement figures have been calculated before bonding.

Since these final figures will not be known until late spring or early summer, this means exten­ding the line of credit until 2013. Bonding for disaster relief is a selectboard deci­sion and does not require a public vote. How­ever, if the town were to bond for additional capital improve­ments, that would re­quire a public vote by Australian ballot.

The two bonds could then be combined for repayment pur­poses and the cost then added to the regu­lar budget.