Manorhaven board OKs borrowing for Sandy expenses

The Village of Manorhaven plans to borrow $710,000 to pay for Sandy-related expenses while it waits for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At a Jan. 17 emergency meeting, the village board approved issuing a bond anticipation note for $225,000 and a budget note for $485,000 to cover operational and capital expenses it incurred from the Oct. 29 superstorm.

At the board’s Jan. 31 meeting, trustee Dorit Zeevi-Farrington said the borrowing was necessary because FEMA reimbursement could take up to a year.

The village incurred about $685,000 in expenses, including tree removal, sidewalk and street repair, and flooding, as well as overtime from village workers, according to village attorney Charles Casolaro. The remaining $25,000 of the borrowed amount will go toward interest and fees, Zeevi-Farrington said. The village’s credit rating was recently upgraded to A+ by Standard & Poor’s, leading the village to believe the interest rate will be low, she said.

Casolaro said the borrowing would not affect village taxes, and that the village would use the FEMA reimbursement to immediately pay off the debt.

Also on Jan. 31, the village board voted to direct Casolaro to draft a moratorium law that would prohibit building in the village’s enterprise district in Manhasset Isle for six months. “These are the only open places we have left,” Trustee Lucretia Steele said at the meeting.

The legislation will be the subject of a public hearing at the board’s Feb. 28 meeting.