Highway super threatens to stop applying for FEMA money

AMENIA — During the Thursday, Sept. 15, Town Board meeting, Amenia Highway Superintendent Stan Whitehead told the board that he was going to stop applying for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant money if the town continued to put his hard-earned grant money into fund balances available to the entire town, forcing his department to go into unnecessary debt.Whitehead presented the board members with 10-page packets that detailed the history of his financial struggle with the town over the last dozen years.The issue was brought to light when Resolution No. 40 of 2011 was added to the agenda.The purpose of Resolution No. 40 was to transfer $5,000 out of the Highway Fund Balance in order to make another payment to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for a salt shed grant that the highway department received almost 12 years ago but did not use the full amount.Whitehead maintains that the grant money not used by the highway department was put into the town’s fund balance, and “all Amenia taxpayers received a benefit from it.” Therefore, said Whitehead, the grant should be repaid from the town’s contingency line instead of the Highway Fund Balance line.At the end of 2010, the highway department paid $5,000 toward repaying the unused grant money. The remainder of the balance will come due next year.Whitehead said that he spoke with the town bookkeeper and was told that since the money went into the highway department, it would also have to come out of the highway department.“But as far as I’m concerned, it already came out of the highway department when it went into the fund balance,” he said.Whitehead said that there have been two other occasions when his grant money was put into the fund balance that was available to the entire town: once while Arlene Iuliano was town supervisor and once while Janet Reagon was town supervisor.Whitehead said that revealing the issue regarding the highway department’s grant money helped oust Reagon from office in favor of Wayne Euvrard, the current town supervisor.Whitehead said that for both previous occurrences, the highway department was required to take out loans because the grant money was no longer in the highway department to be used at the department’s discretion.“If the town is going to take the money to make the board look good [by having a large fund balance], then I won’t apply for grants,” he said.Applying for grants takes a lot of time and effort, said Whitehead, but his efforts have been no help to the highway department.Whitehead said he is frustrated that his department is in debt even though he applied for sufficient funds.“Now I have to budget for [loan] payments. I watch my budget very carefully and I’ve never over-spent and I’ve never gone to the board to say I need money,” said Whitehead. “This year would have been real tough if I didn’t get that FEMA money in January.”Whitehead said he fears that the FEMA money he received in January will face the same fate as some of his previous grants.Resolution No. 40 was not voted on during the Sept. 15 meeting. The board decided that the issue warranted further inspection and will be discussed at a later meeting.