08-02-2025
County entities one step closer to receiving disaster relief funds
Feb. 8—On Thursday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine authorized the use of the State Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) to support various entities in Ashtabula County with expenses incurred in the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm, according to a press release from DeWine's office.
The SDRP is a reimbursement program used where storm damage amounts do not meet the threshold for federal assistant, but do meet state requirements. It is open to local governments and eligible non-profits, according to the release.
Ashtabula County Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Fitchet said the governor's announcement is part of the process for local governments and non-profits to get reimbursed for some of their expenses incurred during the storm.
He said the threshold for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is very high, and the area did not come close to qualifying for it.
"The threshold for public assistance under the state of Ohio's disaster relief program is less, and we did qualify for that, because we turned in just about $1.6 million of costs," Fitchet said. "We had to meet the threshold of more snow than the previous highest snow level, which we surpassed that by double. Having five feet of snow, we weren't going to have any issues with that."
All of the data was collected and turned in to the Ohio EMA's disaster branch.
"They make sure that we qualified, and we did, so then they turned it into the governor," Fitchet said.
Now that DeWine has approved the application, the state will go back to entities that applied for relief funding and verify the costs that were submitted.
"All they're doing is validating the numbers, really, that's the process," Fitchet said.
DeWine also approved an extra day for the disaster relief.
"Typically, under the program, it's for 48 hours, they increased it to 72 because that snow didn't stop," Fitchet said.
Communities turned in their expenses for the entire storm, but they will pick the three highest days of those submitted and then get 75% of the submitted costs of those days reimbursed, he said.
Everyone who is eligible for reimbursement has received the paperwork they need to do, which will be turned in to the Ohio EMA disaster branch, he said.
"Each community gets to pick their three highest [expense] days, so they have to do that," Fitchet said. "This is a process that will go into next month. Then Ohio EMA will take it to the controlling board, which controls the money in Ohio, and they'll get the money released to each of those communities."
He said the amount of money received in the county will be below the $1.6 million that was submitted, because entities can only be reimbursed for three days.
Ashtabula City Manager Jim Timonere said the city administration is grateful it's finally happening.
"We're very happy all of our partners here were able to push for this, and it came through," he said. "Now we've got to do some final calculations here, and see how much we would actually be receiving and then the time frame in which to receive it."
The city submitted a little over $290,00 in costs for the storm, Timonere said.
Conneaut City Manager Nick Sanford said the city is very grateful to all of the local stakeholders, including the other city managers, the village administrators, the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners and the county EMA for their collaboration.
"They're the real unsung heroes in securing this and seeing to it that we have the resources we needed," he said.
Sanford said the city is putting all the required documents together to submit to the Ohio EMA.
"It's a very organized process, I have to give credit where it's due," he said.
The city's initial estimate of expenses related to the storm was $125,000, Sanford said.
"We had a significant amount of overtime, between police, fire, all of our public services, including our streets department, water and wastewater out plowing," he said. "It was a lot."
Geneva City Manager Joseph Varckette said in an email the city was pleased to learn about DeWine's decision.
"We're also very appreciative of the support and guidance provided by our local EMA Director, Mike Fitchet," he said. "Having the opportunity to recover a good part of our costs associated with that major storm will go a long way in easing the burden placed on our general fund."
Varckette thanked the Ohio Department of Transportation and Harpersfield Township for their help during the storm.
