Chalk it up to never knowing what you can get until you ask.

On May 20, Lumon May sent a letter to Gov. Rick Scott asking that the Florida Division of Emergency Management release money owed the county for Hurricane Ivan related expenses.

That’s right, 10 years after Ivan, the State of Florida still held more than $4 million in monies owed to Escambia County.

I’m all for keeping a rainy day fund, but come on now.

Especially since our rainy day came on April 29-30, deluging the area with 26 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.

Late Friday evening, Escambia County received notification that it will receive a payment from the Florida Division of Emergency Management for approximately $3,200,000 to $4,200,000 within the next week.

County spokeswoman Kathleen Dough-Castro said the money is reimbursements related to debris removal from Ivan, which made landfall in September of 2004.

“In fairness to the State of Florida, the reimbursement had been held up at the state level for the last 18 months or so. Prior to that, the request was with FEMA,” Castro said by email.

The issue has been discussed off and on at commission meetings over the last few years, Castro wrote.

May, the commission chairman, said it was news to him.

“I was unaware of (the money we were owed) until we had this recent disaster and it was brought to (commissioners’) attention,” he said.

With repairs to the county’s infrastructure from this year’s flood topping tens of millions of dollars, that Ivan money will come in handy.

Now the question is: Who let it sit there for a decade?

“Why did it take me to write this letter? Why didn’t other people write this letter?” May said. “I think staff told me that we had sent it to the state and were waiting for them to reconcile the last purchase orders.”

For 10 years?

Said May, whose family construction business was founded by his father: “If people owe you money, you have to send them reminder after reminder after reminder.”

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