From the Legislature: Could be a wait for disaster money

This spring, we had a flood that did damage throughout my district, Senate District 14. The damage was in Hill, Chouteau and Liberty counties, plus three other Montana counties.

This past week, the State Emergency Management Services folks, along with Federal Emergency Management Agency people, were in our area helping counties figure out the paperwork.

I attended the meeting in Havre in the hopes that the new e-system, which is the way FEMA processes paperwork and payments, has been improved since I worked with it last. As a county commission, we dealt with flooding in the past and accessed the Federal Emergency response. At that time, we ended up waiting about three years for the FEMA money. This time, unfortunately, the wait may be even longer. The way federal money pays for documented damage happens only after approval by FEMA personal. Federal money will only pay for the first 75 percent, with the last 25 percent needing to be local money. For the most part, documentation was completed by the road departments shortly after the flooding happened, and the FEMA paperwork or e-work in this case will be further processed by someone with the counties after they get the training to do so.

In listening to the news, I was disappointed to hear that dual enrollment has dropped significantly for this year’s high school students. In the Interim Education Committee, we heard testimony from students telling about the amount of money they saved by taking college classes while in high school. If you know of a student who plans to continue their education post high school, please have them look into the state’s dual enrollment program.

On a fun note, Havre Festival Days was a big success. It was not hard to find something to do. There was a golf tourney, college rodeo, football, venders downtown and maybe the longest parade I have seen for some time. We had the pleasure to see and visit with many folks we know, as Judy and I lived and worked in Havre in the ’70s. What a great day.

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Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, can be emailed at russ.tempel@mtleg.gov. He is facing a re-election challenge from Havre Democrat Paul Tuss.