Boulder County Commissioners Approve Debris Removal Contract For Marshall Fire Victims
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- Boulder County Commissioners Tuesday moved ahead with a private property debris removal contract with DRC Emergency Services for victims of the Marshall Fire. It followed the signing of an intergovernmental agreement between the county, Louisville and Superior to share some of the costs of the removal.
The final estimated cost of the debris removal contract came in at $60.1 million. That figure is higher than an earlier estimate of $52 million.
FEMA has said it will cover 90 percent of the cost in reimbursement grants and the county now says it has received work from FEMA that it will also reimburse for foundation removal. Insurance companies do get billed for the cost of site clearing and so much of the money will be recouped there. The State of Colorado has also pledged funding to help share the cost that may remain and will split the remaining ten percent with local communities.
"I feel pretty good about where we are with all that we've gotten accomplished and having the FEMA reimbursement for cleanup and the foundation removal is tremendous," said Superior mayor Clint Folsom, who planned to make it official for the town which has already approved. "I just need to go through the formality of signing it." Louisville is also expected to sign off after council members approved signing an inter-governmental agreement with Superior and The County on Monday.
For fire victims, it was a needed boost. Tawnya Somauroo said she had managed not to cry when thinking about or passing the rubble of her family's home in Louisville in the nearly three months since the fire, until Tuesday. "I never cried about my house burning down but I actually finally cried after driving past it," she said. "It's hard to see it. I remember that day. I remember how we all realized our neighborhood was on fire. And we're all running for our lives and we're running into each other's house getting each other out, and when I see the rubble I remember those moments."
Fire victims had hoped that cleanup would begin at the start of March, but a series of delays in finalizing the contract followed. The county has said it hopes to begin cleanup by the end of the month, but that still remains undecided.
Assistant County Attorney Carrie Doyle said "They are able to mobilize fairly quick and I know that staff is working fairly diligently to finalize specific scopes of work for each jurisdiction. I don't know the exact date but I know that we're planning to have a community meeting on March 29…when we'll be sharing all of the details of how work will begin."
Folsom said DRC was getting started. "They're already starting to mobilize. They're already bringing in equipment into town and they're going around to sites doing initial assessments. But the actual debris removal, I think that's a week or two out still."
There is still a lot of concern from people worried about how long their insurance companies will cover temporary housing.
"There's people that have twelve months of coverage for additional living expenses and then there's people that have 24 months," said state insurance commissioner Michael Conway. "As we get a little bit closer to that twelve month time frame, we do expect insurance companies to start working with the homeowners. Especially if the delays are outside the control of the homeowner."
Although he noted that nothing in state law requires companies to extend those payments.
"I don't want to overpromise and say we're going to be able to get companies to provide more coverage than they are contractually obligated to, but we've been having conversations with insurance companies. But insurance companies want to take care of their homeowners. They want to keep those customers."
A lawsuit over the contract filed by a group started by former FEMA director and current radio and podcast host Michael Brown, remains in the hands of a Boulder District Court judge. But Brown and the group, Demanding Integrity in Government Spending known as DIGS, backed out of the portion of the suit asking for an injunction to halt the signing of the contract for debris removal.
The judge has yet to rule on a remaining portion of that suit in which DIGS makes claims about Open Meetings Law violations and seeks to depose government representatives involved in negotiating it and choosing DRC Emergency Services.
County commissioners also approved a recommendation from county, Louisville, and Superior staff to award a bid for soil sampling to TetraTech. The contract for an estimated three quarters of a million dollars calls for soil sampling at each property after debris is removed.
"In order to provide property owners with information about whether hazardous contaminants such as heavy metals exist on each site," said the county in a statement.
At properties where they find contaminants still remain, they plan to work with property owners on the potential to remove additional topsoil.
