Blizzard bucks from China?

Plymouth County Supervisors last week took the first step toward securing state and federal funds to pay for the Christmas Blizzard of 2009.

A week ago, the supervisors passed a disaster declaration, declaring that the storm that lasted from Dec. 22 - 27 was a disaster. The total cost, which is still being tallied is estimated at $300,000 and rising.

Gary Junge, county disaster services coordinator, reported to the board that a meeting has been held with all the communities in the county where information about the costs of dealing with the blizzard has been shared with a team that came from the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management and also from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

After the application is done, the state and the federal government will look at the expense and decide if they will declare a need for disaster funding.

The last time Plymouth County received disaster assistance for winter weather was after the March 2007 blizzard.

We realize that time can diminish memories, but as bad as that blizzard was in March of 2007, this winter and the Christmas blizzard have been worse -- much worse. Cities, counties and the state have spent thousands of dollars on snow and ice removal, money that wasn't necessarily budgeted.

It's really no one's fault. If governments budgeted as much as they have spent this winter on snow removal every year, they would be getting flack for budgeting and raising money for something they don't need. A clamor would arise for budget cutting, and the amounts would be reduced.

They you have a year like this one, and everything goes out the window.

So we go through this dance. The local government doesn't have the money to pay for snow removal, so they go to the state. The state doesn't have the money, so they go to the federal government. The federal government doesn't have the money to give, so they go to China.

So thank you in advance, People's Republic of China. We realize you by and large don't mess with snow removal much, but we're glad you like to spend money on us.