$53M Provided to Restore Vermont Building Hit by Irene

The federal government and the state’s insurance will provide $53 million to help rebuild the Vermont state office complex in Waterbury that was flooded during Tropical Storm Irene, state and federal officials said last week. The money will go toward a $125 million plan to tear down some of the buildings in the complex, restore others and construct a new one that will house about 900 employees of the Agency of Human Services. [The governor’s office said this week that Lexington is the state’s insurance company that would contribute part of the funds to help rebuild the office complex.]The plan is itself part of a list of Irene reconstruction projects related to the closing of the Waterbury state office complex expected to cost $225 million, including relocations for displaced workers and the cost of building a new state hospital, officials said. In addition to the $53 million, the state is also eligible to receive another $36 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state’s insurance company to pay costs of relocating state offices and preliminary cleanup work and another $30 million for replacing the Vermont State Hospital.