February 18, 2015 — Gloucester city officials, caught unaware of the city’s expected role in distributing federal fishery disaster funds to eligible local shore-side businesses, were scrambling Tuesday to determine exactly what the city must do to help get funds to affected businesses along the city’s waterfront.
“We had no idea about this,” Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said Tuesday. “Right now, we have nothing in place and nothing planned. But I will make sure we have a plan.”
Romeo Theken said she will call state Division of Marine Fisheries Director Paul Diodati for guidance on the city’s role in applying for and doling out its portion of the $750,000 in shore-side business assistance. Those funds are contained within the approximately $8.3 million Massachusetts is receiving in the second phase of the federal fishery disaster relief.
“I’m going to ask him what we need to do and what he wants from us,” Romeo Theken said.
The question is whether the city should already have known about its role in the process of distributing the disaster relief to shore-side businesses in the second phase of funding.
The state detailed the criteria for distribution in its fishery disaster relief application to NOAA Fisheries last Sept. 30.
It said “prequalified local government agencies” selected by DMF as contractors “will propose operational plans to administer disaster aid funds to Commonwealth shoreside businesses impacted by groundfish quota cuts during the period FY2009 – FY 2013 that are important to the continued viability of the Commonwealth’s groundfishing communities.”
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times