Stafford Slowly Moving Forward, Two Years After Sandy

by Steve Moran

Two years later, Stafford Mayor John Spodofora still remembers the elderly woman he and the police found wading through a flooded Beach Haven West street clutching her wedding album after Superstorm Sandy.

“It broke my heart as she told us she had just recently lost her husband,” he said. “Now, she had probably lost everything else she had, but she wasn’t going to lose her wedding pictures.”

Resident Joe Mangino, who zigzagged through debris-filled streets at dawn on Oct. 30to get back home, said he knew he was in trouble when he saw the waterline on the homes he passed.

“I opened my door and the house smelled like the bay and all my work equipment was strewn around the garage. It was all just one, big, soggy mess,” he said.

Spodofora said the township police, public works department and volunteer first responders had already been working tirelessly to prepare for the worst.

“Some of these folks were going nearly round the clock, sleeping on floors for a few hours at a time while their own homes were being damaged,” he said. “Their efforts continued on in the days after the storm.”

All of them deserve the highest praise, but so do the countless numbers of volunteers from the community that quickly came forward.

“When I visited the shelters right after Sandy passed there were already doctors and nurses who had come in to help, said Spodofora.

Other area residents were coming in and out dropping off food, blankets whatever they could, he added.

“Many of them were offering to open their homes to those who had to evacuate, even if the were strangers before then,” said the mayor.

Looking back, Spodofora said the people of Stafford were his best asset. “They are what kept this town going and they are still helping out today. You can’t thank them enough.”

Mangino could not agree more.

After the initial shock of what he found wore off, he began emptying and gutting his house. The next day, Stafford school teacher Mike Dunlea and a group of other teachers “just showed up” and began pitching in to help, said Mangino.

That one act led to the birth of S.T.A.R.T. (Stafford Teachers and Residents Together), whose volunteers have to date helped hundreds of families.

“We just started cleaning places out, gutting homes, distributing needed items and gifts cards, anything to help our neighbors,” he said.

As time went on Mangino and many others grew frustrated with the slow response of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and other state and federal programs.

”We were getting call after call for help, often because these people had nowhere else to to turn,” he said.

Spodofora agrees that the delays in state and federal assistance have hindered homeowners, primarily in Beach Haven West to return, which also hurts the township.

“We lost $200 million of our ratable base after the storm with more than 4200 homes impacted by the storm,” he said.

Stafford Township moved quickly through its tax assessor to reduce the value on damaged properties to the land value to help reduce the impact of Sandy, said the mayor.

Moving forward
Today, the township has reclaimed about 75% of that $200M with a good portion coming from the new construction taking place in Beach Haven West. “Many of the homes are larger than the previous ones and will be paying more in property taxes,” he said.

Spodofora also said he is optimistic that rate of return of properties to the tax roles will result in a small if any rate increase going into 2015.

He also pointed out the township has completed the repairs and replacement of the infrastructure of Beach Haven West, primarily the water and sewer lines and pumping stations.

“All the water and sewer work is completed and the streets are getting repaved,” he said.

Two other projects are scheduled to begin soon, the demolition of abandoned or neglected homes, and the construction of a new Mill Creek Community Center, said the mayor.

The township has received the state funding to move forward with tearing down homes with the owners’ permission at no cost to them, he said. “We will begin with primary residences and move to second homes if there are sufficient funds,” said the mayor.

No bank owned or builder/investment properties will be eligible, added Spodofora
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The current community center building is scheduled for demolition this month with a contract for the new construction anticipated to be awarded in December, said Spodofora.

The mayor said there will be more details on both these projects forthcoming shortly.

Mangino is now preparing for his next step, getting his house raised. After two years and an arduous 8-step process, he was finally approved for his Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation (RREM) grant to raise his home.

“I was able to get my family back into the house in time to celebrate last Thanksgiving, and now we’ll be moving out again after this one,” he said.

Most of his S.T.A.R.T calls are now from people looking for help with process he just completed and other paperwork, added Mangino.

“They are frustrated and at the end of their savings. Some of them are just going to have to walk away from their homes,” he added.
“They (FEMA) have billions of dollars. They should have given us the money, and we would have the whole town rebuilt by now,” Mangino said.