Springfield Councilman supports using reserve funds for storm cleanup

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- On Monday, Springfield City Councilman Brandon Jenson addressed City Council before the elected leaders unanimously passed a bill that temporarily waives brush disposal fees as thousands of residents collect debris from last week's storm. 

In a nearly three-minute comment, Councilman Jenson says the city can't rely on federal government reimbursement and would support using reserve city funds to help pay for the city's cleanup. 

"The level of debris that this has created is far beyond what individual homeowners are going to be able to handle, and I also think we're in a time where we can't necessarily rely on the federal government to step in and help us with these types of things anymore," Jenson said. "That doesn't mean that our citizens don't still need our help, and so regardless of whether we can expect reimbursement for this type of service, we have a reserve or a rainy day fund for a reason, which is to help us recover from disasters, and last Tuesday was certainly a rainy day in my books, and so I would be supportive of utilizing that those funds to either provide overtime incentives for our employees if they're able to provide this type of service or contracting with crews to help residents."

Jenson also told City Council he spent time volunteering this past weekend, and commented on the number of volunteers.

"It's my hope that there was a really strong grassroots neighbor helping neighbor cleanup effort, but I know that the turnout of volunteers at the coordination center definitely left something lacking for me, and so I want to let members of our community know that even if you were not affected directly by the disaster event, there are still a lot of people in this city who need help digging out of the mess, and so if you have an opportunity, please make sure that you're using some time to help your fellow neighbors," Jenson said.

OzarksFirst has reached out to the City of Springfield officials with questions about the process of accessing 'rainy day' reserves to help with clean-up costs, and other questions related to the reserves, but has not heard back at this time. We will update this story when that information is available.