By Pepper Parr
December 29, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
There are people in the Burlington Community Foundation offices plowing through piles of paperwork during the holiday as the 310 applications for funding under the ODRAP program are reviewed.
The Foundation was given the task of managing the claims process and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars locally to qualify for “two for one” matching funds from the province.
Claims Committee member Nancy Swietek, Dan Lawrie Insurance listens to a resident whose home was flooded
Monday of last week the claims committee, made up of Nancy Swietek, Dan Lawrie Insurance, Rick Burgess, a local lawyer, Mark Preston of Preston Insurance Services and Bruce Russell of Wardell Insurance, went through 22 applications and sent a couple back to the insurance adjuster hired by the Foundation, to give the applications a professional review.
The committee spent two hours clearing 22 claims. Using that as an average, the 310 claims are going to eat up an additional 28 hours of their time – and these people are all volunteers – they don’t get as much as a dime for their efforts; they probably don’t even get mileage.
Funds for those approved should work their way through the cheque requisition process and be in the hands of the applicants very close to the 15th of January.
Those who were late filing their applications will not see any funds until sometime in March. What surprised many, stunned would be a better word, was the more than 100 claims that came in the two days before the deadline.
The Claims committee is handing out funds that were raised by the community and matching funds that given to them by the province – they have a responsibility to ensure that those monies are distributed within the ODRAP guidelines – which, in the minds of many are a little on the stringent side.
There wasn’t a microphone or a telephone Burlington Community Foundation president Collen Mulholland would get her hands on as she drove the organization that raised very close to $1 million for flood relief victims – she then made sure the province made good on the two-for-one matching grant.
While there is no formal process for appealing the finical support given, Collen Mulholland did say that the Claims Committee will listen to anyone who has a concern about what they were given or if their application was denied.
The ODRAP rules are strict. Funds are available to people who were uninsured or under-insured; if the applicant does not meet that criteria there claim will not get processed.
The Burlington Community Foundation hired an independent insurance adjuster who goes over the claim and ensures that the numbers and other data given are correct, fair and reasonable.
Keven Reimer the insurance adjuster working for the Claims Committee talking to resident at a public meeting explaining the ODRAP program
Keven Reimer, the insurance adjuster, made it clear at a public meeting that the objective was to help people get back on their feet. A furnace that was damaged by the flood will get replaced – that Persian rug that was in front of the 60 inch HD TV set – is probably not going to be replaced. You will get funding for a carpet and a decent sized TV set – but the new Persian rug is something you will have to save up for.
The drive to help people in Burlington who were very hard hit by the flood damage August 4th is now coming to a close. Burlington raised close to $1 million in less than 100 days – a remarkable feat that in due course will be properly recognized and celebrated.
All the recognition does not go to the politicians – Mayor Goldring made two critical phone calls and showed the kind of leadership his citizens expect of him when he called Colleen Mulholland at the Burlington Community Foundation and asked if they would take on the task of putting together the team that would deal with the provinces ODRAP program and raise funds locally. The Mayor placed a second call to Ron Foxcroft asking him to head up the fund raising drive.
The people who know Foxcroft knew he was going to put the squeeze on them – and squeeze he did. There wasn’t a banker in the city that didn’t get a call; several got more than one phone call.
There were some local retailers that came through big time for their customers and there were large suppliers of the kind of thing thousands of homes in this city bought to repair their homes that were not heard from.
When the final list is published you will see who showed up and who didn’t.
There were people who did some extraordinary work. Recently elected MPP Elanor McMahon jumped into the trenches and made numerous critical phone calls. When the province at first said no to the request from the city that it be seen as a disaster area and was entitled to the matching funding McMahon was one of the people getting back to the Premier and Minister Ted McMeekin.
There were two members of council who now know more about the basements of houses in the eastern
There was hardly a basement in ward 5 that had been flooded that Paul Sharman didn’t look at closely. During the early stages of the fund raising he was one of the more passionate speakers.
Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison spends a lot of time at community events – more so than some other council members. During the early days of the flood his staff had him crawling through more than 1000 basements. Here he works with residents on community planning
half of the city. Paul Sharman and Jack Dennison went into hundreds of basements to see first hand how bad the damage was. Both handed out hundreds of forms and handled even more phone calls from worried residents.
Burlington has a to to be proud of – the people and the commercial sector of the city pulled together in many marvelous ways.
