By Kathy Savolt -
At the September 26th Work Session and Regular meetings, the Board of Trustees (BOT) acted on issues to address flooding and making the community safer and more resilient.
Moratorium/Code Changes
At the Work Session, the BOT discussed a possible moratorium on all building in the federally designated flood zones in the Village. Village Planner, Greg Cutler, informed the BOT that most of the Village would be in that designation and edged the BOT toward making changes in the Village Code to focus on “how to make areas more resilient.” See HERE
The first change was Proposed Local Law W-2023. This law would change the Village Code to strengthen storm water management throughout the Village. See HERE
This proposed law makes several changes to the existing code including using what Village Attorney Robert Spolzino called “modern language.” For example, all the “shalls” have been changed to “musts” and all the “mays” have been eliminated. More substantial changes include adding definitions of both 100 year and 500 year storms, requiring that existing properties without storm management systems add them when undertaking a project valued at more that 25% of the building’s assessed value (not including the land), increasing the required storm water system design to handle a 100 year storm, and adding several changes that make it easier for buildings in the flood zone to be raised and make other changes to be more resilient to flooding. The proposed law also requires green building elements based on a point system. Staff will continue to work on this proposed law as well as a second proposed law declaring a moratorium, just in case.
Help from Westchester County
At the regular meeting, the BOT passed a resolution See HERE requesting help seeking funding for assessment of potential upstream water retention options. Mayor Murphy reported that County Executive George Latimer was open to receiving this request. Copies are also being sent to our State representatives.
Tropical Storm Ophelia and the Cameras
Village Manager Jerry Barberio reported that 1.5” of rain fell last weekend and that the Village “was prepared but lucky.” The six cameras were in place but only 5 were working. Village information technology (IT) staff are working on livestreaming the cameras on the Village’s YouTube channel during storm events. Barberio explained that broadcasting them 24/7 is too costly as we have to pay for cell service for each. The cameras are recording all the time. See HERE for previous article.
The cameras are located at the dam, Center Avenue bridge, North Barry Avenue across from EMS, Warren Avenue Park, Grove Street and in the Beaver Swamp Creek. Barberio reported on positive reactions from both the Police and Fire Chiefs.
In addition, measuring sticks will be added within the next two weeks so the level of the river water is visible.
