MARIES COUNTY — The county has still not received money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from the April 2025 disasters, according to Presiding Commissioner Vic Stratman and Western District Commissioner Patrick Kleffner. The project is currently in the project review phase.

Storms March 30 - April 8 caused damage to county infrastructure and, more than a year later, the commission is still communicating with FEMA to receive money for the repairs.

Storms with straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding washed out roads and culverts and left behind debris in 20 counties. A total of 805 residences were affected, and the total public assistance cost estimate was $25.51 million.

Maries County, which did not have tornadoes, had an impact of $23.76 per capita. This is above the $4.72 indicator set by FEMA for 2025 for public assistance.

FEMA is a federal agency that helps local governments respond to major disasters and emergencies. The agency also provides grants to help cover the cost of repairing damage to infrastructure, removing debris and performing emergency medical procedures.

Stratman attributes the slowness to “government red tape,” and Kleffner said that the county does what it needs to receive the federal aid.

“We do our part. We give them the paperwork when they ask for it, and that’s about it. It’s up to them after that,” Kleffner said during the May 14 commission meeting.

The commissioners expressed frustration with paperwork and the agent switching. Kleffner said that an agent will say that everything is good until after a deadline passes. Then the agent will claim that they didn’t turn in all the paperwork on time.

According to County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers, whenever a new agent would take over, all the paperwork had to be submitted again.

“And she left, and another guy game in, and then we had to start all over again,” she said May 7 during the commission meeting.

Deputy Clerk Renee Kottwitz announced during the May 11 meeting that Kevin Haskin, FEMA program delivery manager, would no longer be working on the project. He said that Peter Kellough would be the new program deliver manager.

Kleffner had last heard from Haskin that “everything was good to go,” and Kottwitz is hoping that she doesn’t have to redo any of the prior work.

Bryan Boyce and Jeff Banderet from Great River Engineering (GRE) came to the May 7 meeting discuss any county needs such as commercial driver license (CDL) training or future projects. During this discussion, the topic of FEMA came up.

Boyce worked for Boone County for 22 years, and a storm in 2019 washed out seven miles of road. He said that the county logged the damage, but every few weeks, they had to deal with a new FEMA worker and resubmit the paperwork every time.

Boyce eventually moved on to work for Cole County, and about three months before working for GRE in 2023, Boone County received the FEMA funds.

“It’s like their whole purpose is to not give you money,” Boyce said.