Toms River Officials Approve $35 Million Storm Appropriation

Toms River Council Members unanimously approve a resolution Friday Night that authorizes a special appropriation of up to $35 Million to help cover cost associated with Superstorm Sandy. Township Administrator Paul Shives says the measure would allow the township to continue to extend money to cover contracts associated with Police Patrols, Public Works overtime and debris removal ... among other things.

Shives says "we've already extended a significant amount of money and we need to basically be in position to be able to reimburse ourselves from FEMA when those funds are available."

Citing an example of some of those extraordinary expenses , Shives says, the township's landfill cost in the past two weeks is over a million dollars. He says the Police overtime cost during the past two weeks is over a quarter of a million dollars and he says he expects both those expenses to continue.

Shives says the funding will be a part of temporary financing in terms of bond anticipation notes as the township needs it. He says they're certainly not moving forward with the entire amount all at one time.

Shives says township officials fully expect the cost incurred to be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because the expenses are all eligible cost under the agency. He says they're working with a firm to insure that they get the maximum allowable reimbursement. They're using O'Brien's Response Management, a consulting firm that's worked on similar storm-related funding matters.