JOPLIN, Mo. — Joplin may not bear any cost in the long run for tornado cleanup and repair because the city was able to count $17.7 million worth of donated resources and volunteer hours toward its share of the expense to be paid by the federal and state governments.

The city finance director, Leslie Jones, told the City Council on Tuesday night that those donations of materials and labor were the largest in the history of a Missouri disaster, and the largest ever tabulated in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region 7 territory, which encompasses Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

The work of 102,000 volunteers who contributed 610,300 hours, along with donated goods and materials worth $8.5 million, and 12,000 hours of donated equipment use, is being counted by FEMA toward the city’s share of expenses.

Costs for damage to city property and for cleanup of the tornado zone will be paid by insurance, FEMA, the State Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Highway Administration, Jones said.

Damage costs except the cleanup of debris amounted to $24 million. The debris cleanup cost $94 million. Of that, $82 million was incurred during the first 90 days after the May 22 tornado, when President Barack Obama agreed that the federal government would pay an increased share of 90 percent. FEMA normally pays 75 percent of the expense. After that agreement expired, the remaining debris clearance cost $3 million inside the “expedited debris removal zone” and $9 million in the lesser damaged areas.

Jones said the numbers are estimates prepared with the help of FEMA and city departments, and if they hold true after everything is repaired, the disaster may leave the city with about $103,000 more in reimbursements than the storm repairs cost.

City Manager Mark Rohr said that after rescue and recovery efforts were done, and residents had found temporary shelter, the costs the city would incur for permanent recovery caused him to become “truly concerned for the financial health of the city.” He said the city staff then began to prepare for the best way to limit those costs. He said “a lot of people helped get us to this point,” including the volunteers, FEMA, SEMA, residents and the city staff. He described those efforts as “truly remarkable.”

In other business related to the tornado, the council approved an agreement to allow social service agencies to place modular offices on city-owned land in the airport industrial park. About 530 storm-displaced families are living in FEMA mobile homes near the airport.

Cookie Estrada, of the Joplin Family YMCA, said the project would be done at no cost to the city because the Heart of Missouri United Way in Columbia donated the money to pay for the costs of installing the modular offices. He said 25 agencies — such as Rebuild Joplin, Access Family Care, the United Way and others — can use the offices so that residents do not have to travel across the city to obtain services they need or assistance with finding permanent housing.



ATHLETIC COMPLEX

A move to name the softball fields and baseball stadium at the Joplin Athletic Complex became the subject of council debate. It passed despite the objections of three council members.

The council voted 5-3 to pass a resolution to name the baseball stadium after the late Wendell Redden and the softball complex after the late Gene Bassman.

Councilman Morris Glaze said he is not insensitive to naming fields after volunteers who served sports organizations, but that it throws up a roadblock to selling the naming rights that could help offset city costs.

Councilman Mike Seibert said several other local sports figures could be honored, and he saw no rush to decide the names.

Councilman Gary Shaw said he respected Bassman and Redden, but that he would like to have more time for council discussion of the issue instead of one council member, Bill Scearce, obtaining endorsement of the idea from the park board and using that to force a quick vote.

Shaw, Seibert and Glaze cast the “no” votes.





Mutual aid



IN THE WEEKS after the EF-5 twister, mutual-aid assistance was received from 435 law enforcement, fire and ambulance agencies from across the nation. Of those, 80 agencies asked for reimbursement of their labor and equipment costs, which amounted to $1.5 million, according to the figures the City Council reviewed.