The Federal Emergency Management Agency has pushed back the date it plans to provide the state with a determination for how much it is willing to pay for the rebuilding of the Waterbury State Office Complex.
FEMA spokesman David Mace said the delay in the long-continuing saga of how much reimbursement the state would get was tied to a desire to provide the state with accurate figures.
“We want to ensure that we have a high degree of confidence in the funding levels so that the state of Vermont has the ability to move forward with recovery plans at the Waterbury State Office Complex confident with the knowledge of FEMA and insurance support for its future plan,” he said.
“FEMA understands this is a critical project for the state of Vermont, and is committed to taking whatever time is necessary to ensure that the state receives all the funding for which they are eligible under the law. We hope to accomplish this by month’s end; this is a target, not a deadline,” he added.
Since the complex was inundated by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, the state has scrambled to find working spaces for more than a thousand state employees displaced by the flooding. At the end of November, lawmakers approved a design for a new $124.66 million state office building to house roughly 1,000 Agency of Human Services employees.
The state has been negotiating with FEMA and providing detailed damage estimates for over a year on the critical issue of the reimbursement amount. Millions of dollars hang in the balance, and any amount not provided by FEMA or insurance will be picked up by the state for the restoration and construction at the historic state office complex.
