Assemblyman Clifford Crouch 1 Kattelville Road Suite 1 Binghamton, NY 13901 Dear Assemblyman Crouch, As you are well aware,

on August 28, 2011 Hurricane Irene ravaged the Village of Fleischmanns. Six months later, the scars from this horrific event are still painfully evident. I would like to commend the Delaware County Office of Emergency Management, as well as the NY SEOM on their responsiveness to the situation. I would also like to commend Lt. Governor Duffy and Ron Rausch of the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets on their sympathy to our situation. Lt. Governor Duffy put us in touch with Mr. Rausch to assist us in finding both short and long term funding solutions in the wake of the flooding. To date we have spent almost $90,000 in flood recovery efforts, representing 20% of our annual budget. Mr. Rausch informed me of the FEMA Community Disaster Loan Program, and assured me he would find out who on the state level was administering that program. I eventually spoke to Bill Dugan of SEMO, and discovered that Governor Cuomo never asked FEMA to trigger the Community Disaster Loan Program for the municipalities in New York that were hit so hard by Hurricane Irene. I was told that the program was difficult and cumbersome, and that municipalities would have to open their books for five years and go through an enormous amount of paperwork before FEMA would approve such loans. Although I disagree with Governor Cuomo in his decision not to ask FEMA for the Community Disaster Loan Program (personally, I think it should have been up to the individual communities), I respect his decision. My question, which no one can answer, is: What is Plan B? If Governor Cuomo has prevented municipalities, including Fleischmanns, from applying for the FEMA Community Disaster Loan Program, what loan program does New York State have lined up to assist us? In October I approached our local bank about a municipal bond. They immediately wanted documentation from FEMA (in the form of Project Worksheets) assuring that the village would be receiving the money from FEMA. Our FEMA representative is juggling 7 applicants and has over 100 project worksheets to complete. He has been told to produce at least 4 per week. According to my calculations, and at that rate, all of the project worksheets will be completed by June. To date we have only signed off on only 13 project worksheets out of a total of 71 to be completed, and have received only one check from FEMA for a total of $10,392.68. As you can see, this makes applying for a municipal bond impossible. The village has several (as FEMA defines them) Large Projects. According to FEMA, As the project proceeds, you may periodically request funds from the State to meet expenses that you have incurred or expect to occur in the near future. In anticipating the need for payments to contractors, be sure to take into account the time that the State process requires for approval of requests and disbursement. Final costs and payments, are, of course, another story. My point is this: it took the state 72 days to process and pay for just one Small Project. We work with small, local contractors who rely on prompt payment from municipalities to pay their employees and

other expenses. This means the village will have to front the money for the Large Projects, including restoration of our village park as well as the extensive amount of stream work. We can not fiscally shoulder this burden. FEMA estimated that the Village of Fleischmanns sustained $4 million in municipal damages alone. This does not include the 69 homes damaged during the storm. This also does not include the pedestrian bridge over the Vly Creek and the vehicular/pedestrian bridge over the Bushkill Stream that were destroyed. These are both county owned and maintained. According to the county, there is simply not enough money to replace these two bridges. These bridges are critical to the infrastructure of the village, especially for the large summer time Orthodox community, who use these bridges heavily on the Sabbath. Based on the FEMA large projects the village must front the money for, the Village of Fleischmanns respectfully requests the State of New York to lend us $1 million interest free over a 3 year period. We plan to begin work on the village park and other municipal projects this spring. But without up front funding, this will be impossible. It is also our utmost hope that we will repay this loan in less than 2 years. However, we have already been told that the stream work will probably not begin until 2013. Thank you for your time. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Todd Pascarella Deputy Mayor