In Springfield, the city council voted Monday to give Mayor Sarno permission to deficit spend to cover emergency costs from the tornado.
One day after spending touring storm-ravaged sections of Springfield and Western Massachusetts, Gov. Deval L. Patrick on Monday submitted legislation to pay for emergency response costs and to streamline the process for communities to begin rebuilding.
The bill includes $10 million to pay for overtime and other costs of emergency response by state agencies such as the State Police and the National Guard. It also provides new methods for cities and towns to speed the borrowing of money for emergency purposes.
“We will do whatever we can to help those impacted by last week’s devastating storm rebuild their lives,” Patrick said in a statement. “As these communities continue to recover, this emergency funding and the municipal tools provided in the bill will help provide the critical resources they need right now.”
In Springfield, the City Council on Monday unanimously gave the mayor permission to “deficit spend,” to cover tornado-related costs borne by city departments, ranging from overtime pay to emergency demolition.
The city has already spent close to $4 million since the tornadoes last Wednesday, and could eventually spend roughly $38 million, according to the Finance Department. The city hopes that most of the costs, possibly 75 percent, will be reimbursed by future state and federal disaster aid.
The deficit spending, that can occur within any found available funds, and through borrowing, needs final approval from the state Department of Revenue.
The swift action on Beacon Hill and Springfield City Hall compliments moves by Western Massachusetts-based businesses to contribute to tornado relief efforts on behalf of businesses and residents displaced by the storm
Big Y World Class Supermarkets announced the launch of a fund-raising campaign, complete with a $50,000 matching grant, while United Bank of West Springfield announced a goal of providing as much as $100,000 for relief efforts.
This comes while the communities affected by the tornado continue to gauge the impact of the damage on buildings and infrastructure, while residents who lost homes continue to rely on emergency shelters while search for permanent housing.
Patrick’s bill would quicken municipal relief efforts by abolishing a requirement for cities and towns to obtain approval from a municipal legislative body and the state Municipal Finance Oversight Board for short-term borrowing in the event of an emergency.
The bill also allows communities to seek approval of the finance board to receive emergency borrowing for capital purposes for a longer term. It would also allow certain communities to provide property tax relief to property owners affected by the tornadoes. Property taxes for the fiscal year that starts July 1 would be based on the damaged condition of the properties, according to the bill.
The bill also would clear the governor to draw up to $25 million from the state’s estimated $600 million rainy day fund to finance costs of responding to the storms.
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said the first priority is to persuade the federal government to declare a federal disaster for the areas hit by the tornadoes. That could make people and state and local governments eligible to apply for federal aid.
DeLeo said he is willing to talk about the use of state rainy day money to help with costs of the storms.
“This is going to take a little bit of time,” DeLeo said. “The biggest issue we have to get our hands on is the costs.”
DeLeo said financial aid for cities and towns could be handled as a separate item. “Right now, I think we are probably more concerned with the State Police, the National Guard, some of those cleanup costs,” DeLeo said.
Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said legislators will make Patrick’s bill a high priority and will do their best to move it to his desk for his signature.
State teams this week are documenting the need for federal disaster assistance in central and western Massachusetts, Patrick said at a press conference.
“This week there are two kinds of assessment teams — individual and public — who are going around and doing the financial estimates of the costs of rebuilding and the costs of cleanup,” Patrick said.
“We have to aggregate all that. That process normally takes two or three weeks. We expect to finish it this week in one week and then make our application for a presidential declaration of disaster. When that is granted, and we expect it will, then the federal resources will be available at those same recovery centers. There will be just one place where people can go to get all the help that is available.”
View full sizeThe path of the tornado through Springfield.Patrick has announced the openings of three storm assistance centers in Springfield, Palmer and Southbridge. The centers are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. Companies with Western Massachusetts roots also announced plans to help relief efforts back home.
Big Y World Class Supermarkets announced it has launched a customer donation program at each of its 61 supermarkets to raise money for tornado relief efforts.
In addition, the supermarket chain will make a matching donation for the first $50,000 raised.
The donation drive began Sunday and will continue through June 19. Containers will be available at each register at all supermarket locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Two top officers with Big Y announced they will be making donations above and beyond what is raised in the customer drive.
Big Y President Charles L. D’Amour, and his wife Elizabeth, and Chief Executive Officer Donald H. D’Amour, and his wife Michele, will donate $10,000 to the relief effort, or $20,000 total.
Since the tornado struck, Big Y has been providing food, sandwiches, water and in some cases shelter to rescue workers, volunteers and displaced families. Also the West Springfield-based United Bank announced it will allocate as much as $100,000 to relief efforts in Western Massachusetts.
Richard B. Collins, president and CEO of United Bank of West Springfield announced the bank will allocated up to $100,000 to relief efforts in Western Massachusetts.
“We are very fortunate that the majority of our employees were not directly affected by this disaster,” said president and CEO Richard B. Collins. “But we do have an obligation to help local residents and businesses whose lives and livelihoods have been impacted.”
He said a donation of $25,000 will go immediately to the American Red Cross for tornado relief.
The bank put up the initial $5,000 toward a tornado relief fund it has created with WGGB abc40/FOX6, and will serve as the collection point for the fund. Donations, which will go to the American Red Cross Pioneer Valley and the Springfield Corps of the Salvation Army, may be made any United Bank branch.
The bank will also devote up to $75,000 in its August funding cycle to support non-profit organizations in the area who sustained damage as a result of the tornadoes.
More information on relief efforts may be found at its website, BankAtUnited.com, and on Facebook at facebook.com/BankAtUnited.
Throughout Western Massachusetts the outpouring of support continued.
Donations of used clothing for tornado survivors have poured in so heavily at the Hitchcock Free Academy in Brimfield that academy officials on Monday announced they could not accept any more.
Springfield Tornado Assistance Resource Guide
“Thankfully, we now have more than enough donations and literally cannot handle any more,” said assistant director Sharon Palmer. “Please do not bring any more items to Hitchcock.
Palmer said the level of generosity and concern on areas residents for the displaced exceeded the force of the tornadoes.
People in need of clothing or household items may come to the academy at 2 Brookfield Road and take what they need. Those who know of people in need who cannot make it to the shelter are welcome to pick up items for delivery any time Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
In Brimfield, the assessment of damage continues.
The Village Green Family Campground sustained tremendous damage with 95 of 97 camper trailers destroyed, and most of the trees that made up the wooded campground were knocked down.
Also Virginia Darlow, 52, was killed and her boyfriend Richard Reim, 51, critically injured when their camper flipped upside down.
Reim and was being treated Tuesday at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.
Campground owner Lester Twarowski said there were a dozen campers and another 10 family members at the campground when the storms hit on Wednesday. Twarowski and an employee herded most everyone at the campground into a tiny basement at the property.
“We stood in an area the size of a pickup bed, huddling and hugging,” Twarowski said.
It could have been a lot worse if the storm struck during the previous weekend when there were 500 or more people on the grounds.
In Springfield, some 250 displaced people settled in at the emergency shelter set up at the MassMutual Center, the fourth separate location for the shelter since the storm.
It was initially set up in the MassMutual Center hours after the tornado, but the next night was moved to the Greenleaf Community Center, which proved to be too small. Another site was added at Central High School, but with classes resuming Monday, the shelter was moved back to the MassMutual Center on Sunday night.
Marisol Lozada said Monday it has been a long six days and she and her husband and their children and extended family tried to make the best of moving from shelter to shelter.
During one of the moves, Lozada fell and broke her arm, and then the following night, her 6-month old child got sick.
“It is too much for them,” said Isabelle Pellot, a volunteer for the American Red Cross who was assisting at the shelter Sunday. “They need one place.”
People are already struggling with the loss of their homes. In the added stress of the moves, one 92-year-old woman suffered a stroke and two more people were taken to the hospital Sunday after they fell ill, she said.
American Red Cross Western Massachusetts Tornadoes Fast Facts, June 6, 2011
State Rep. Cheryl A. Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, spent most of Sunday in the shelter and said she feels people should have never been moved. Most of the people who are in the shelter lived nearby in the south end of Springfield so being at the MassMutual Center is the best place for them.
The Pioneer Valley of the American Red Cross is running the shelters in partnership with the city and other community organizations, including local businesses. As of Monday there were a total of 362 people being house in Springfield and West Springfield, said Melanie A. McDonough, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
They will not be moved again. MassMutual has committed that we can keep this space for seven days,” she said.
Brenda Negron, who has been in a shelter with her children, ages 16, 15 and 9, since the tornado tore the roof off her Saratoga apartment building, said she was glad to hear that.
“It is hard because they make you move from one place to another place,” she said.
“I have no roof,” she said. “I lost everything...I lost all of my furniture, half of my clothes, most of the kids clothing.”
Case workers are assisting families to find housing and other services they need, McDonough said.
“We are taking each family by a case-by-case basis. One family may have two kids while another may have a grandmother living with them,” she said.
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Ward 3 City Council Melvin Edwards and Coakley-Rivera will conduct two separate tornado-recovery information sessions, one for residents and one for business owners, on Wednesday night at Milton Bradley School, 22 Mulbery St. The session for residents is from 6 - 7 p.m., while the session for businesses is from 7 - 8 p.m.
The sessions are open to anyone affected by the tornado, and not just residents of Ward 3.
Throughout Springfield property owners worked to secure buildings, clear debris and repair damaged roofs. Springfield Building Commissioner Stephen Desilets advised people who are putting plastic tarps on their roofs as temporary fixes from storm damage need to make sure not to block chimneys or air vents.
Blocking either could expose residents to the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning, he said.
A structural engineer gave the go-ahead for the Hampden County Correctional Center on Sunday to move 150-low risk inmates back to the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center on Howard Street in the city’s South End.
The returned inmates are now pitching in to help clean up debris and repair the damage to buildings. Facility director James Kelleher said there are supervised crews working throughout the city, in particular in East Forest Park and Six Corners.
The inmates doing the work are in the final stage of their treatment programs and are required to perform community service, but Kelleher said they are eager to lend a hand.
“As long as they need us to be out there, we’ll be out there,” he said. “We’re just one small component of what others are doing and how others are contributing.”
In heavily-damaged Monson, officials said Monday that classes for all grades from kindergarten through 12 will resume Tuesday. All classes in the Monson schools had been canceled since Thursday.
Monson residents were asked to separate disaster debris and place vegetative debris only in piles at the curb, not on private property and not in the street. The town has contracted with a company to begin pickup Tuesday.
In West Springfield, teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were going neighborhoods trying to gauge the extent of the damage to buildings.
Mayor Edward J. Gibson said there has been some disagreements between local and federal officials about whether particular buildings are merely damaged or are beyond repair.
He acknowledged that the greater the number of buildings declared complete losses likely increases federal aid to the city.
View Western Massachusetts tornadoes: Resources, damage and road closures in a larger map