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Costs of dealing with Bridge Collapse
For nearly two weeks the cost of the collapse of the Interstate 35W Bridge collapse has been very clear. Thirteen people are gone, nine of them confirmed dead, four are still missing. There isn't a price this city wouldn't pay to get them back. But now city leaders, namely Mayor R.T. Rybak, do have to begin addressing the other costs of this tragedy. "We are now estimating that the cost for the city is at about $10 million," Rybak said. That is the wages of city workers, like fire and police, but it doesn't factor in the actual cost of losing the 35W Bridge. Mayor Rybak was scheduled to have a budget ready for the Minneapolis City Council this week but he says the city now has too much financial uncertainty because of the bridge collapse to finalize a fiscal score card. Rybak says he has to find out how much federal money will come to the city to reimburse its costs first. "I believe we can manage the costs and hope that most, if not all, of it is reimbursed," Rybak said Tuesday. It's easy to see where money is getting spent. "Yeah it's taxing the police department but I think all the cops are hanging in there," Assistant Police Chief Sharon Lubinski said. In the first six days after the collapse more than 100 officers staffed the perimeter at the bridge around the clock, working on overtime. Keep in mind that work is just an addition to the usual patrol of the department. "You know when you have a disaster you have got do what you have got do, which means a lot of cops out there for rescue and recovery and to make sure the crime scene is safe," Lubinski said. Paying those officers the overtime is what becomes costly. Right now, Mayor Rybak is estimating the city has spent about $10 million; most of which he is hoping will be reimbursed with federal money. But not all is guaranteed. "There is no way you can get back everything spent on time and overtime," Rybak said. Police also have to deal with doing the normal tasks like policing the city and Lubinski said that is going just fine. "Frankly we have not suffered in the neighborhoods of Minneapolis in the fact that our violent crime in the past week was down 22 percent." The financial costs of this tragedy will be added up in the weeks and months to come. But at the same time few have lost sight of the fact that the real cost of what we as a metro area have lost goes way beyond dollars and cents. "Financially, and in other ways, this is something that will change the city forever," Rybak said.
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