AMHERST
Town considers $2 million loan to fund drainage plan
By Sandra Tan
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/18/08 6:38 AM
A few hundred Amherst residents call their town government every year demanding relief from persistent flooding and basement backups that threaten their homes with every heavy storm.
“For some people, just a little rainfall gives them the jitters,” said Supervisor Satish Mohan.
Now, the town may borrow roughly $2 million to fund a drainage plan designed to alleviate the flooding burden that primarily affects neighborhoods in northeast Amherst.
Local and federal guidelines recommend that drainage systems be designed to withstand all but the 50- year or 100-year major flood event, said Kesavarao Yalamanchili, town drainage adviser. But drainage systems in flood-prone parts of Amherst have flood limitations as low as two to three years, he said.
Mohan said addressing town flooding problems was a hallmark of his campaign for office.
“I thought, ‘I’ll do this in six months,’ ” he said, “but it has taken me two years to get to this stage.”
In May of last year, the town commissioned Wendel Duschscherer Architects and Engineers to develop a flood-mitigation plan for the town, focusing primarily on two troublesome drainage ditches that run north-south in Amherst, east of Hopkins Road.
One of the ditches also collects water upstream from the Town of Clarence to the east.
Wendel Duschscherer subsequently produced a recommended action plan last month that Mohan summarized and highlighted for the Town Board on Monday. The key priorities include:
• The creation of two retention ponds upstream along Youngs Road and at Bassett Park, both of which are town property, in addition to the proposed expansion of an existing retention pond on the private property of the Amberleigh Retirement Community on Maple Road.
The retention ponds would hold storm water upstream so that they lessen the likelihood of properties flooding downstream as the ditches empty into Ellicott and Tonawanda creeks.
The plan also recommends constricting a storm water outlet at Windsor Park Dam, adjacent to the Amberleigh pond.
• Cleaning, deepening and widening various ditch sections.
• Improving or reconstructing 16 bridges and culverts that run along or over the flood-prone ditches. Two would involve county cooperation, and two would involve negotiations with private property owners.
Mohan said the town still needs to nail down costs in order to borrow the money needed and set a timetable for project completion. Ideally, he said, some work could begin this season.
In other news, the board voted Monday to create an audit committee that would provide another layer of monitoring and control over town finances. Council members all agreed a committee was necessary but disagreed on the number of members who should serve.
The board ultimately voted, 4-3, to support a three-member committee, including two financial experts, that would begin functioning July 22.
