WHATELY — While Whately avoided the same level of devastation as neighboring Conway during July’s rainstorms, its Highway Department was still kept busy during the response.

In the wake of approximately 19 to 21 inches of July rain in Conway, the Whately Select Board held a brief discussion Tuesday afternoon on public works mutual aid, which functions similarly to public safety mutual aid, but is less common.

“Fire departments, ambulances, things like that, mutual aid’s been present forever,” said Highway Superintendent Keith Bardwell. “When it comes to highway stuff, DPWs, it’s still recent. … There’s a learning curve.”

A public works mutual aid agreement is enshrined in state law, which spells out a default arrangement for providing help to another community in the event of a widespread disaster.

The law also outlines reimbursement guidelines, in which the town providing aid pays for its own work and then the receiving town seeks state or federal disaster assistance to split amongst the two communities. In this case, Whately paid for its own employees to go to Conway with an excavator and front loader, and Conway will be required to share some of its disaster assistance to pay for the aid. Conway’s damage was most recently estimated at nearly $2.2 million.

Sparking the conversation was Town Administrator Brian Domina, who wanted to make sure everybody in town was up to speed on how this process works.

“Unbeknownst to me, there is a state law that talks about public works mutual aid agreements,” Domina said. “This was a learning experience for me and it seems sufficient.”

In the wake of storm damage, Whately closed a few areas, including Westbrook and Williamsburg roads, but avoided the millions of dollars in damages that Conway and Deerfield experienced.

“Unfortunately, it seems like this may be the way the weather is going to trend,” Domina continued. “It very well may happen again and we may be asking for help.”

Bardwell explained the mutual aid system sometimes has to “have the kinks ironed out,” but it is an effective tool to deploy resources to a community hit hard by a disaster.

Select Board Chair Fred Baron noted that public safety mutual aid calls are often confined to one location, which makes the coordination between agencies much simpler when compared to an event where roads are washed out all around Conway.

“In general, fire and ambulance are small-scale events, as opposed to public works with roads and bridges getting washed out and affecting a large number of people,” Baron said. “This will come up essentially only in emergency situations. … You don’t know what bridge or dam is going to give out.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.]]>