It has been nearly one year since Hurricane Isabel came to call on Alexandria and the city dock is still not repaired.
Just after Isabel, parts of the dock were declared structurally unsound. A boat, which was moored at the dock, was sunk and one of the piers was damaged. Today, the boat has been raised but the pier has not been fixed, making some wonder just how much revenue has been lost.
Not much, according to Julie Rasmussen, the division chief for capital projects at the city's department of parks, recreation and cultural activities. "I don't have the exact figures but we have been able to accommodate most of our boat owners who have long-term leases at other spaces in the marina," she said. "Also, we have been able to hold all of the events that were on the calendar for the dock. The only people that we have not really been able to serve are the more transient boat owners who come and go from the marina."
The dock hasn't been repaired because it has been caught between bureaucratic procedures of an insurance company and those of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "The city has insurance and we first went to our insurance company," said deputy city manager Mark Jinks. "That process bordered on the absurd because of the amount of justification they required. Clearly, they lost a lot of money on the East Coast during Isabel so it was to their benefit to prove that we did not meet the half million dollar deductible."
Finally, though, the company issued a decision that the damages to all city-owned property did not meet the deductible. "That allowed us to apply for FEMA funds, which have their own $350,000 threshold," Jinks said.
That application has just been filed. "We expect to hear from them in about 90 days but we cannot repair anything for which we wish FEMA funds until we receive that approval," said Mark Penn, the emergency management coordinator for the city.
In addition to the dock, two city garages sustained damage that has not been repaired and there are still some repairs that need to be done at the Charles Beatley Library. "We fixed the roof of the library so that it would not continue to leak but there are some other minor items that remain to be fixed," Jinks said. "The electronic mechanisms at the gates of the two garages still need to be replaced."
Even if FEMA denies the city's request for funds, the repairs will be made. "These are the kinds of things that FEMA provides funding to fix so it shouldn't be a problem," Jinks said. "We should know soon."