Community Corner

Company Talks Mitigation Funds With Brick Council

Details needed when applying for funds, company officials note.

A $1 million investment in field assessments by Brick Township could mean as much as $50 million in future grant funding for the township to rebuild after Sandy, according to presentation at the regular Council meeting.

Tommy Horton and Carly Foster of ARCADIS US Inc. made that statement and presented on the work that there company has done to get the township back on track in the months since the storm damaged about a third of the township.

Asked by Council President Bob Moore how the township fell with other municipalities in the area of mitigation efforts since the storm, Horton responded: "I would've liked to be further on [some areas] but we're out in front of most municipalities in terms of mitigation."

The pair spoke after being invited by Township officials, Horton said.

Mayor Stephen Acropolis took aim at a question from Democratic mayoral candidate John Ducey, who asked Horton what made his services essential, compared with using FEMA representatives, as other municipalities have done.

Ducey has raised several questions in recent weeks related to Arcadis and engineering firms that worked with them to gather data that Horton said is needed to apply for mitigation funding.

Ducey has said on the record more than once that he felt some of the data that has been collected could've been done by students or other part-time employees at less cost than what some of the engineers who worked on the project accumulated. He also noted neighboring towns have used FEMA investigators to collect data.

Ducey said at a meeting held earlier in July, that he had a problem writing a "$7 million blank check," and noted some of the $15 million that has already been spent has gone to engineering firms that, in his terms, "walked around, leaving hangers on doors."  He was referring to three engineering firms that canvassed Brick homes to see about repair or demolition statuses earlier this year.

At the time, Acropolis took aim at Ducey's comments, saying "I find it interesting that Mr. Ducey, who has absolutely no experience with hurricanes, would contradict our consultant who has been in the disaster business for 25 years." It was at that time that Acropolis proposed having the consultants present on the work accomplished thus far.

At this meeting, Acropolis asked Horton and Foster if they felt that interns could have accomplished the work that has been done thus far, which included 39,000 photographs and other data collection on infrastructure damage following the storm.

The pair said that they had considered using lesser paid staff to acquire the data but decided to recommend against that because of the level of detail needed in the mitigation grant applications.

Regarding using FEMA representatives, Foster said, "would you want the IRS to prepare your taxes for you," to some chuckles from the audience.

Explaining the need for engineers to collect the data, Foster cited the example of a crack in a road. She noted that local engineers would be able to discern the difference between a Sandy-damaged road and one that had been damaged or in severe disrepair before the storm. Those distinctions are key when applying for a FEMA grant, she said.



Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here