Lockport buoyed in efforts on flooding
Donner Creek plan earns DEC praise
LOCKPORT — The town’s Donner Creek flood-control plan has received positive initial reviews from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Supervisor Marc R. Smith told the Town Board on Tuesday.
A meeting last Wednesday with DEC staff members “was very productive for the town,” Smith said.
He told the board that the DEC briefed him on permits the town would need for various aspects of Alternative 2 in a report issued in May by Wendel Duchscherer Architects & Engineers, the engineering firm hired by the town. It would cost $335,000 to $360,000 to widen culverts and improve drainage ponds in the creek area.
The board has not taken a formal vote, but Smith said the most likely outcome is that the work in Alternative 2 will be done in stages over a period of a few years. The Wendel Duchscherer report states that the result of the work will be to keep the flooding from getting any worse, not improving it.
“We’re only doing 50 percent of the improvement items to keep the flooding away from those people [living near the creek],” Town Engineer Robert
D. Klavoon said. Smith said he does not think
that it’s worthwhile to spend up to $1.5 million on Alternative 3, which calls for much more extensive work to prevent a “10- year flooding event.”
“There really is no benefit to all of the community. There are 20 properties there, not houses, but properties. It’s a big chunk of money,” Smith said. “The creek flood plain functions properly. It’s supposed to fill up.”
DEC spokeswoman Megan Gollwitzer said the plan is “a definite positive step forward.
. . . As to whether the permits will be supported by the DEC, it’s too early to say.”
Smith told the board that Alternative 1, the status quo, was emphasized by the DEC as an option. He said, “As far as DEC’s concerned, the less we disturb that creek bed, the better.”
On another matter, the board accepted Klavoon’s recommendation to hire New England Pipe Cleaning of Watertown, Conn., to clean and check for leaks in a Robinson Road sewer main. That company and Pipe Eye Sewer Services of Bradford, Pa., made identical bids of $34,908.50 for the work.
Klavoon said Wendel Duchscherer had worked well with the Connecticut firm in other towns, and said he preferred its qualifications and equipment.
The contract is to be formally awarded at the board’s business meeting at 7:30 p. m. today in Town Hall, along with a $232,733 contract for Tunney Electric of Clarence to rehabilitate sewer pump stations on Jennifer Drive and Robinson and Strauss roads.
