HomeMy WebLinkAboutLeslie & Steve Ungberg - flooding.PDFSeptemb er 12, 2011
As usual, there was flooding in our neighborhood this past week,
and the swiftly moving current of wateithat flow.o flrro"gh ourbackyard was more of the same we have gome to expect on aregular basis-th3t is, every few months, whenever it rains heavilyandlor protractedly.
Thanlks to nrultiple sump pumps we did not get any water in ourdwelling as some gf orl neiglrbors did due to the high level ofgrounLdwater, and thanks to a newly constructed berm around theback of our house, the water pretty much flowed around us, thistime, but the fact t;hat the resfof oir back yard,gardens:and storage
shed i*e frertruently. hq!1Jtg by water from the so-called drainage
channel that runs along Wirlthrop Drive continues to be a source of
aggruvation., inconvenienceq and worry, what if the power goes
9ff and the pumps stop worting? what if the new berm is
breached in a future storm? whett will it be safe to put our
sandbags away? r\nd what shall we tell a prospective buyer when
we go to selll this property?
While one of our lMinthrop Drive neighbors has built up theirportio:n of the stream bank this past year and conscientibusly keeps
the velgetatio,n low in the bottom of ihe channel, another "rigt uo,
continues to have tall grass Qnd high weeds growing in the Jhannel,
a situation thLat surrely contributes to the inability of that channel tocarry rvater efficierntly awayf Too many times we have seen the
water begin 1,o lear,'e the stre{m right at the place where those
grasses and lveeds begin.
According to stormwater manuals we hpve read, anything that
takes ,rp u lot of space in the channel may aggraviile flood
problems, and if flooding is a problem one shoulcln't do anything
io reduce the channel capacrty by constricting it irn any way. From
what we have learned, constrictions cari include urndersized
culverts, large jams of debris, ffid clogged and ol'ergro'wn
vegetation. There is definitely clogged and overglrown vegetation
in ihe portion of the channel we are talking about.
Article III of the village of cayuga Heights bylarns, which deals
with mowing and care of property,'states in Section I that owners
shall keep their ptoperty in sanitary and sightly crcnditipn and
mow all gnssandweeds at least once between June 1 imd June t5
and at least once between July 15 and August 15 each )/ear.
In section II of the same article it statep that if thre ProFertY owner
fails to comply with this requirement, the Village Board of
Trustees shall cause the work to be'done and assoss ther expense
that it has done in the past and all that it could do preserntly tcr
protect us,from this ongoing problem, according to its own
document it is not even doing the minimum that could be done if it
against the proPertY.
In our opinion, neither of these requirements are being followed by
the Village. While we continue to think the Village is not doing all
were following its own by-laws.
Leslie & Steve lJngberg 3 Winthrop Place, Ithar;aNY 14850