County will receive less money that initial damage estimate called for

Shoshone County is going to have the opportunity to show off their ability to make funds stretch.

Last month, Shoshone County officials estimated $329,900 in total damages caused by the flooding that occurred earlier this year.

The original estimate was done by the county, but in order to stay within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) the county was supposed to get estimates from local contractors instead of just the county itself.

This slight oversight was due to inexperience in dealing with FEMA damage assessment regulations.

“We are probably looking at more like $55,000 that we are guaranteed to receive, but we still hit the $46,000 threshold to ensure that we get assistance,” Shoshone County emergency services manager Cory Foster said. “We didn’t realize that we needed to get contractors to give us estimates because all of our damage was done to county roads and bridges which falls under public works.”

Shoshone County Public Works director Frosty Greenfield did the initial assessment, but he did it from the standpoint of what it would cost from a public works standpoint and not from a contractor.

“If we had gotten the estimate from a contractor, the estimate would have been much higher, which would have given us more room for negotiation with FEMA,” Foster said.

In the Preliminary Damage Assessment Estimate submitted to the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security, Greenfield outlined nine different locations that were severely damaged by the flooding, but none were greater than Elk Prairie Road near Calder, which suffered an estimated $300,000 in damage. According to Greenfield’s assessment, the remote road had been made “impassable due to high water,” and that the west side of the road is unsafe for travel and the road has been reduced to one lane. Other locations (with estimates in parenthesis) include Nuckles Gulch Road in Osburn ($3,800), a section of Silver Valley Road outside of Wallace ($4,500), parts of Atlas Road ($10,000) and Bingville Road ($5,500) in Mullan, the East Fork of French Gulch ($2,500) including significant damage to a culvert there as well ($2,250), a culvert on Reynolds Road in Kingston ($700), and a bridge on Pine Creek Road near Pellan’s Road ($650). FEMA representatives will be meeting with Foster next week.

Foster believes that FEMA will see the damage and the amount of money that gets dedicated to Shoshone County will increase, but he believes it will be far less than the original $329,000.

“The money we receive for emergencies like this is designed to restore the damaged area back to its original state, not necessarily better,” Foster said.

For more information or to report an issue contact Shoshone County public works office at (208) 753-5475.