Lakewood Gets $245,000 for Hurricane Sandy Reimbursement

Lakewood spent about $300,000 during last year’s Hurricane Sandy.

That’s mostly stemming from the overtime hours for public works employees, police officers and firefighters — as well as debris pick-up. 

However, the city recently received word that the federal government is reimbursing the city about $245,000 the money it spent during the October super-storm.

Fire chief Scott Gilman announced the news at a last week’s city council meeting.

“That covers our emergency response and debris pick-up,” he said. “It represents about 87 percent of the city’s expenses caused by the storm.”

“It was an exhaustive paperwork process that we went through.”

Jenn Pae, the city's finance director, said that the money will go into a FEMA fund set up by the city.

Mayor Michael Summers recently told Lakewood Patch that the federal money is "one-time money" that can't be used to support operations.

“It’s money that we weren’t expecting, even though we applied for it this year,” he said.

“It’s good news for us.”

Clarification: The funds are going into a FEMA fund set up by the city.