Dear State, County, City, Township, or local government official,

 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is providing financial assistance, in the form of Public Assistance (PA) Grants, to the State of New Jersey. To satisfy its compliance responsibilities, FEMA’s Region II Environmental & Historic Preservation Branch (EHP) has created the attached public notice for Executive Order (EO) 11988 (Floodplains), EO 11990 (Wetlands) and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (Section 106). The public notice is for FEMA funded actions that are located in a floodplain or wetland or may affect listed or eligible historic properties related to the COVID-19 Response (DR-4488-NJ). Funded actions include but are not limited to: temporary testing sites, temporary Alternate Care Facilities (ACF), temporary storage sites and temporary mortuary sites.

 

Due to the circumstances of the current emergency, FEMA is deviating from its standard practice of posting the public notice in newspapers across the state and is instead posting and distributing the public notice only electronically in accordance with the flexibility granted to FEMA in both the National Historic Preservation Act (36 CFR §§ 800.2, 3) and Executive Orders 11988 & 11990 (44 CFR § 9.8).

 

To provide the public an opportunity to comment on the public notice, FEMA is posting it on the FEMA DR-4488-NJ website for a minimum of 15 days. In addition, FEMA is requesting your assistance by posting this public notice on your State (NJ OEM), County or Municipal website, where public notices are normally viewed. If possible, we recommend that you also post hard copies in open public facilities or offices (post offices, county or municipal offices or other locations) that have posting boards for community members who do not have internet service. Both a mailing address and an email address are provided in the public notice for any comments that the public wishes to submit to FEMA EHP.

 

We thank you for assisting FEMA EHP in meeting our compliance responsibilities during this difficult time