By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Barren County Deputy Judge-Executive Garland Gilliam said talks to get mitigation money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are going well.
Mitigation funds are different than public assistance money that Barren County was approved for last month in that, as Gilliam explained, mitigation involves getting the money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to build something back “better” than it was before the disaster.
“Public assistance will pay us [the county] to put things back to pre-disaster condition,” Gilliam said. “We don’t want to return [Ritters Mill to] pre-disaster conditions we don’t want to go back to pre-disaster conditions because that’s what got us in this condition, so mitigation [funds] is for making something better.”
“The whole purpose of mitigation is to pay more money to make it better so that you don’t have to replace it again in the long run. FEMA will 100 percent pay us to go out to Ritters Mill and put it back like it was in September but we don’t want to do that because obviously we need some better stuff there.” he added.
Whereas public assistance is a reimbursement paid to the county after the fact, Gilliam said mitigation funds are outright payment, thus the county are “sitting ducks right now” as he navigates the red tape that accompanies federal money.
“We’re a step closer in the process; the conversations [are going] well…but we’re still [waiting],” Gilliam said.
He said engineering firms are working on plans to sent to the mitigation office at FEMA.
In addition to the Ritters Mill low water ford, he said he is also pursuing mitigation funds on the portion of Glover Road that has three low water fords and a bridge.
“As soon as FEMA confirms the amount I’ll let [people] know,” Gilliam said.
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