BROOKE COUNTY, W.Va. (WTRF)
At Tuesday’s Brooke County Commission meeting, the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission gave commissioners an update of the local mitigation plan.
Official say the total was $40,000 and that FEMA would pay $30,000 of it and the state would cover the remaining $10,000 per their contract. But recently the state sent a letter to the BHJ requesting the counties pay that $10,000 instead with their ARPA funds.
Commission President A.J. Thomas says all of Brooke County’s ARPA funds are going towards water and sewer projects.
“I suppose I can understand if there are counties out there who are not spending their ARPA funds on infrastructure projects or things that it was intended for, but you know I’m Brooke County; we’ve dedicated almost all of it to water and sewer projects which was again the intention of those ARPA Funds and on top of that the state never told us that they wanted us to cover that back when we were budgeting.”
A. J. Thomas – President Brooke County Commission
He says as far as he’s concerned the state is required to cover the rest of that money.
As for what happens now, he says the BHJ will take the information gathered from commissioners back to the governors office.
