The Newtown Board of Selectmen has signed off on using $300,000 from various line items in the current year budget to pay for immediate storm-related clean up bills. The municipal damage assessment is about $1 million, and residential is about $1.7 million. Some money is coming from the fund balance, other dollars taken from various accounts. The Legislative Council approved $425,000.
Extensive clean up is currently going on. Rosenthal says 80-percent of the damage was sustained by 20-percent of the town. Newtown had to bring in specialized equipment for the clean up, which officials are hoping to have completed by the end of the month.
In response to concern from Council members about Eversource being slow to respond and about the ration of linesman to tree crews being askew, Rosenthal said Eversource may not have known the gravity of the situation. He agreed that the utility could have sent more line crews sooner.
