Flood News

by Kathy Savolt -

Starting with the March 25th Board of Trustee (BOT) meeting there will be a discrete agenda item for flood mitigation efforts.  Mayor Torres started the inaugural report by recounting a phone call between Village officials, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), County officials, State Senator Shelley Mayer, and State Representative Steve Otis.  Together, they reviewed the State-funded SLR report on the Sheldrake River (See HERE) and looked for areas outside the scope of the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) project where mitigation could be effective and grant money might be available.  Three areas were selected for further review:  Ward Avenue Park, Columbus Park parking lot, and the Anita Lane bridge.

The participants also discussed possible upcoming grants for bridge removal and purchasing severe repetitive loss (SRL) properties as well as reestablishing regular communication with ACE.  The group will meet twice a month on the Mondays of the Village BOT meetings.

Deputy Village Manager Dan Sarnoff mentioned several grant programs for which the Village might be eligible, including the Swift Current effort, a new Federal program which will provide funding to the State for allocation to municipalities.  This effort is designed to provide funding to mitigate flood damage to buildings focusing on property acquisition, structure elevations, reconstruction, or other means to mitigate damage.  See HERE.

Unfortunately, New York State just released the details for the application process and the applications are due April 5th.  It wasn’t clear if the Village would be able to put an application together by the deadline with such a short turnaround time.

Village Engineer Gino Frabasile delineated several ongoing projects that will possibly be part of flood mitigation in conjunction with other projects in the future.  These were mainly drainage improvements in different areas of the Village.

Regular flood mitigation updates will be regularly posted on the Village website.

Despite these efforts, several Village residents, flood victims and supporters of flood victims alike, strongly criticized the BOT during the public comment period.  Many comments were especially raw after last Saturday’s storm and local flooding.

The most oft-repeated plea was for the Village to install pumps to move water quickly to the harbor.  It was not clear if the BOT was going to begin a process to study the pros and cons of such an investment.  It was discussed at length later in the meeting as a possibility, but no clear conclusion was apparent.  However, during that discussion, Trustee Leilani Yizar-Reid said that flooding is the number one priority in the Village.