Community Bulletin
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BUCKHANNON – The local Rotary club fund to help flood victims has grown to $120,000, and applications for financial assistance are now open.
The Rotary Club of Buckhannon-Upshur Foundation announced Friday it is accepting applications from individuals and families impacted by the July 21 flooding in Upshur County. Awards from the Upshur County Flood Relief Fund are intended to help address verified unmet needs and bridge critical gaps not covered by insurance, FEMA or other relief resources. Residents can learn more and apply online here.
Buckhannon city recorder Randy Sanders, a Rotary member, shared the fund’s latest total during Thursday’s Buckhannon City Council meeting.
“We have a foundation targeted for flood relief that the funds are now up to $120,000, and we’re launching the application process,” Sanders said.
He said the local foundation’s board has asked the committee — made up of members from the city and the county, with one Rotary member — to concentrate on the families and individuals hurt worst by the flood.
“We’re trying to get them a little bit more than maybe $1,000 or $500, trying to dig down a little bit deeper, and we’re going to do that as long as we have funding,” Sanders said.
Sanders said people who are not comfortable applying online can fill out a handwritten letter and mail it in, and donations to the fund are still being accepted through the Rotary’s website.
The fund stood at $85,811 earlier this week, when the Rotary Club of Buckhannon-Upshur heard a report at its Aug. 18 meeting from treasurer Don Nestor and member Kelley Tierney about the status of the fund and how people may apply for aid after suffering flood damage.
“We’ve had donations mailed to our post office box, we’ve had a couple of cash deliveries to deposit into the checking account, and we’re having money transferred in, so as of this morning, we have $85,811 in the account,” Nestor said.
“Weyerhaeuser has agreed to give us $35,000,” he said. “They said they don’t wire something that large, so they’d like just to deliver a check to me. Sometime this afternoon, FedEx is going to show up with a check for $35,000 at my house.”
Tierney said she and a committee consisting of representatives from the county and city have developed an application so people may apply for the funds.
“Many of the things on this application are currently in use by the United Way as well as the Hill Stump Disaster Charitable Trust. The mayor tweaked a few things,” Tierney said.
“There is not an automatic exclusion for folks who may have already received some help from United Way, up to $1,000, because some of these folks are looking at no home. We’re not going to say you got your $1,000, move on down the road,” she added. “It’s going to be on a case-by-case basis. We don’t expect this to be a quick process.”
Tierney said the best way to fill out the application is online, and then a committee will evaluate each submission before granting any funds.
“Everybody thought this was a really good, significant first step in handing out the monies that we are collecting through the foundation,” Tierney said. “We are ready to roll and ready to help the flood recovery effort in Upshur County.”
