News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Overton County is in holding pattern for funding the ice storm cleanup while it waits on a federal disaster declaration.
County Executive Ben Danner said during his conversations with FEMA it is just a matter of President Biden giving the declaration. Danner said that getting the declaration will allow for a 90 percent cost reimbursement towards the cleanup.
“In 2015 there was 50,000 cubic yards of debris on the mountain, there’s more than that here,” Danner said. “They’re estimating 55,000 to 60,000 cubic yards. Which it’s kind of hard to tell how much that is but the Tennessee Titan’s stadium, that would be enough to fill it plumb up to the top.”
Danner said that one cleanup estimate the county’s gotten is for $711,000. Danner said he expects the declaration to take a roughly a month.
“The highway department trucks are really not made to haul that big of an amount of brush and that’s why we’re going to use the roll off trucks,” Danner said. “They’re making a big dent in it, so for the next month they’re going to be hauling the brush.”
He said if there is still enough debris at that time to warrant hiring someone for the cleanup, he will ask the county commission for approval. He said that based on the 2015 ice storm, the county might have to take out a loan if the cleanup is bid out.
“It may be a year before we get money back from FEMA, like it was in 2015,” Danner said. “I think the final payment we got from them was in 2017, so it took two years to get the money back.”
Danner said he is set to speak with FEMA again on Tuesday. He said he will also speak with state legislators to see if Overton can use the $667,000 it was allocated for roads and infrastructure for the cleanup.
The county has been approved by TEMA and TDEC to haul and burn the debris at the county quarry on Highway 84. He said the expectation is to try and start burning debris this weekend.
