Watertown Police Chief Pushing for More Cash to Make Up for Dealing with the Marathon Bombers

Watertown officials are looking for ways to make up the money spent after the Boston Marathon Bombing so that those events do not impact other town services, said Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau.

, and the town should get a large portion back, but likely not all.

“FEMA’s regulations are that they would pay 75 percent. We are trying to get funding from other state or federal resources,” Deveau said at last week’s Community Forum organized by the Watertown Police Foundation. “We are not Boston, we’re not Cambridge, we’re not the State Police. Our budget is much smaller. And that’s what we’re telling our elected officials. We need help in Watertown.”

Deveau and other town officials have been working with State Reps. John Lawn and Jonathan Hecht, State Sen. Will Brownsberger and Congressman Ed Markey to find more resources to pay for the overtime. Watertown sent 12 officers a day into Boston after the bombing at the Marathon finish line, and then dealt with the suspects who were ultimately stopped in Watertown four days later.

“We don’t what happened in our town to effect some of the finances, staffing, and resources we might have in the town,” Deveau said.

The town will have to wait a while before learning just how much will be reimbursed.

“That’s probably not going to be decided any time soon. I expect it to be four, six, eight weeks before we have a better reading on that,” Deveau said.

The town will be fully compensated for the damages to the Watertown Police cruisers at the scene of the shootout at Laurel Street and Dexter Avenue on April 19.

“We had three different police cruisers that were totaled. One of them only had 1,000 miles on it,” Deveau said. “The town has good insurance – full replacement insurance - so we will be made whole for those three cruisers, which is good news.”

While four of the officers who took part in the battle with the bombing suspects drove police vehicles, the fifth – Sgt. Jeff. Pugliese – headed to the scene in his family’s minivan. The van, however, did not suffer any damage.

“I was smart,” Pugliese said after the forum. “I parked around the corner.