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Mt. Pleasant Hopes for State Aid in Storm Cleanup

MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y. –Mount Pleasant town officials will seek state aid in order to offset the heavy cleanup costs following one of the worst fall storms in recent memory.

“We’re hoping since they declared it a state of emergency that we will be eligible for any state aid,” Mount Pleasant Town Supervisor Joan Maybury said. 

As town crews work around the clock to restore the town back to normal, Maybury said she hopes state funding will offset the costs of overtime hours put in by workers.  Maybury estimates that cleanup and removal work has cost the town between $20,000 and $30,000 a day. 

“With taking down trees and removing more debris it’s going to be a very negative outlook on our budget so we will welcome any funding that would come from the government,” Maybury said.

Maybury said the town has worked to open up many of the main roads throughout Mount Pleasant and that she was very proud of its preparedness and ability to plow roadways at such an early point in the year. However, difficulties arose when high winds and heavy snowfalls knocked down trees and branches. 

“I think they did a great job of plowing but we were really worried about the roads with Con Edison’s involvement with trees and wires,” Maybury said.

Fallen wires caused a loss of electricity to nearly 4,000 residents over the weekend according to Maybury.  As of around noon on Monday, Con Edison reported around 2,000 customers throughout Mount Pleasant still without electricity with an estimated restoration time of midnight Wednesday. 

Christine Stuetz of Hawthorne lost power on Sunday and said it was especially difficult preparing her daughter for school on Monday.

“It was tough because you wake up in the dark with no heat and the only light we had was candlelight, it was a lot worse than we anticipated,” Stuetz said.  “It’s good that she was able to go to school though because it’s warm there and cold here.”

Justin Otto of Thornwood was also without power since Saturday morning and said he hopes that this storm is not foreshadowing.

“I wasn’t expecting this at all,” Otto said.  “Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come.”

 

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