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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The city&#8217;s submitted blizzard cleanup costs of $678,155 accounts for more than half of the total Luzerne County must meet for potential federal reimbursement, but less than the actual expense.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday sent its number to the county Emergency Management Agency that&#8217;s spearheading the local effort to collect costs from municipalities and nonprofit organizations in order to reach a threshold of $1.15 million and contribute to a much higher state benchmark of $18.5 million set as a possible trigger for the release of funds from Washington, D.C.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre Fire Department Chief Jay Delaney pointed out the city&#8217;s figure is not comprehensive and covers only the highest 48-hour period as allowed under the Federal Emergency Management Agency&#8217;s Public Assistance Program. If reimbursement is approved, the city will receive 75 cents on the dollar, he noted.</p><p>&#8220;We cleaned up for an additional two days after that,&#8221; Delaney said. &#8220;It certainly was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands more than that.&#8221;</p><p>This year&#8217;s city budget contains $102,673 for snow and ice removal, and the reimbursement would help cover some of the extra expense of the cleanup. The city still has to pay the contractors for their work apart from the 48 hours included in the request.</p><p>The city broke down its total for the time period of 5 p.m. March 14 through 5 p.m. March 16:</p><p>&#8226;$153,847 for internal operations.</p><p>&#8226; $498,237 for contractors.</p><p>An additional $26,079 for emergency operations was included and covers the five days under the State of Emergency declared by Mayor Tony George for the historic storm that dumped 23 inches of snow on the city in less than 17 hours on March 14, the highest one-day accumulation in the city&#8217;s history. The declaration from March 14 to March 19 allowed the city to hire outside contractors to assist the Department of Public Works to clear the snow.</p><p>The county EMA set a deadline of today for receipt of local costs in order to pass them on to the state by Friday.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre spent more than the $678,155 it submitted to the Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency for possible federal reimbursement to clean up after the March 14 blizzard. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_TTL031517Snow10CMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre spent more than the $678,155 it submitted to the Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency for possible federal reimbursement to clean up after the March 14 blizzard. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p><ins>For other local news stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/local" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre’s storm cleanup reimbursement request lower than actual expense