By Pepper Parr
May 6, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
It has been a mammoth job with hour upon hour of paper work and telephone calls explaining the awkward process of getting funds into the hands of people whose homes were flooded last August – but that process is close to complete.
The Bank of Montreal, like most of the major banks in the city opened the vaults and made donations to the disaster relief fund. From the left are MPP Eleanor McMahon, Ron Foxcroft, Mayor Goldring, BMO manager Jose Lozano and area VP for BMO Lee Velardo The little lady in the front who kept the community foundation is Colleen Mulholland
Colleen Mulholland announced yesterday that the Burlington Community Foundation (BCF) has completed the review and assessment of the 310 claims that were made: 268 of those claims were approved and partial payments have been made or are in the process of being made to the home owners.
The BCF was asked by Mayor Goldring to create a Disaster Relief Claims Committee (DRC) within days of the flooding. Mulholland spearheaded that effort and pulled in newly appointed BCF Board member Ron Foxcroft to help with the fundraising the community had to do to qualify for provincial government support.
There was a time when Ron Foxcroft was a force to be contended with on the basketball court. He became a force that one had to pay attention to when he started calling the banks in the city for flood relief donations.
Foxcroft drove in just short of $1 million in 100 days.
With the hard work done Mulholland explains that the next step for the Claims Committee is to determine final payment amounts. The City of Burlington will disburse the final cheques and the entire program will be wrapped up by the end of May.
“The Flood Relief efforts have been challenging for all and after months of hard work the DRC is pleased that victims in greatest need will soon receive all of the much awaited financial assistance to put the devastation of the August 4, 2014 flood in the rear view mirror,” said Colleen Mulholland, President and CEO, Burlington Community Foundation.
There are many kudos to be handed out for this magnificent effort.
I put in a claim for $3302.75 to cover lost essential property.
I was awarded a grand total of $770.00 which did not even cover the cost of new mattresses.
I wonder what happened to the bulk of the 2.97 million dollars raised by the community and the Ontario Government!!!!
More than 9 months later….. : (
Money was collected and still it sits – the Community Foundation has proven itself unable to react quickly to assist residents. While nice pictures with over size checks and everybody smiled – many residents suffered financial hardship and still do.
Please note that there is still money that need to pay out. – A better idea – residents get together and help each other as the people who got assistance here were the Community Foundation and local elected officials.