Finance Committee hears updates about October flood recovery efforts | Local News

Roswell’s elected officials held their first public meeting of 2025 when the city’s Finance Committee met this past Thursday.

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Overall, the committee meeting was mostly informational. Budget planning and ongoing matters related to the weather disaster this past October in the city and Chaves County took up much of the committee’s agenda.

There were several items with few details in the meeting packet. City staff handed out a limited number of hard-copy final drafts only to those participating, such as committee members and managers. These two topics are evolving as work to determine the extent of city property loss continues. The two subjects are often intertwined because the city already had budget and cash balance constraints months before the flooding.

Preliminary and tentative damage estimates of “high order magnitude” were presented. The report lists broad categories of estimated damage to specific city departments’ structures, contents, equipment, and vehicles. It also cites the total costs for emergency work needed soon after the flooding.

This and other flood-related financial documents are being prepared with input from a contractor knowledgeable about the process of applying for and obtaining assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), City Manager Chad Cole recently explained.

Cole has also emphasized that knowing how to properly complete these applications and other documents required by FEMA for assistance can narrow the time gap between requesting and receiving funds to help the city recover from this disaster.

Councilor Robert Corn, who also chairs this committee, pointed out that even if reimbursement arrives within 60-90 days after being requested, “we’re still out the cash.”

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Overall loss caused by disaster damage that affected city operations and services is approaching $260 million. By itself, the estimated loss to the Roswell Museum has exceeded $136 million, with much of the damage to artworks alone totaling upward of $107 million so far. The museum building itself is estimated to have $25.6 million worth of repair and replacement needs. Emergency work there is thought to cost $2.75 million.

FEMA describes emergency work as projects that “must be completed immediately following a disaster to save lives, protect public health and safety, protect improved property, or eliminate or lessen an immediate threat of additional damage.”

Roswell Public Works will need about $59.7 million to complete 38 flood-related projects. That amount includes $5.6 million in emergency work. Also strongly impacted has been Solid Waste and Sanitation, which received estimated damages of $24.7 million.

As of Dec. 17, 2024, there were nearly 150 categorized items on the list of damage estimations.

Another report provided details about flood-related requisitions that added up to $2.56 million through Dec. 20, 2024.

Separately, the city’s December expense report exceeded $6.4 million.

Roswell can only access $10 million in property insurance overall, except for specific insurance that covers fine art worth up to $36 million.

Mac Rogers, the city’s project manager, said the city also has business interruption insurance that might prove helpful.

There are two types of this work recognized by this FEMA program: debris removal and emergency protective measures. Reimbursement for such projects is mostly limited to those completed within six months of the federal disaster declaration, which happened on Nov. 1, 2024. An extension is possible if it’s authorized by FEMA or the recipient of the public assistance funds.

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This program is the source of such funding for local, state, tribal and territorial governments as well as some private nonprofit organizations. Supplemental grants for the two categories of this work mentioned in the preceding paragraph and for the “restoration of disaster-damaged, publicly owned facilities and specific facilities of certain private nonprofit organizations. It also encourages protection from future incidents with cost-effective mitigation measures for disaster-damaged facilities,” FEMA explains on its website, fema.gov, as well as with hard copy fliers and pamphlets.

It can also be used for permanent work to fulfill utility needs and to fix or replace roads and bridges; water control facilities; buildings and equipment; and parks, recreation and other unspecified but necessary operations and services.

On a positive note, City Engineer Louis Najar reported that the four local bridges affected by the flooding were open again.

But he went on to state that the Street Department is down to a paltry $600 to pay its employees for overtime work.

“Eventually we’ll have some weather,” Najar advised the committee. ”I’m almost out of money.”

Mayor Timothy Jennings attended a good portion of the committee meeting. He replied to Najar, “We have all kinds of other needs, too.”

Concerns persist among Finance Committee members about the impact of three-month extensions to local business owners for payments of gross receipts tax, compensation tax, withholding taxes, combined fuel tax and other excise taxes for the final three months of 2024. The city won’t receive its share of this money until the second quarter of 2025, and this form of relief to businesses is expected to further complicate the city’s finances.

City officials say they hope state legislators will provide a generous amount of financial aid to Roswell and Chaves County for disaster recovery efforts during their upcoming session that begins on Jan. 21. Legislation can be filed before this session starts through Jan. 17.