New $2M program to aid Hoosick Falls
@NickBuonanno on Twitter HOOSICK FALLS, N.Y. » A new $2 million program will help the village recover from flooding that occurred this summer, officials said.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday announced the $2 million flood mitigation and stream restoration program to help the community recover from the floods that occurred this past July. Historic rainfall in a few short hours caused flooding of the Woods Brook, which damaged homes and area infrastructure.
“New York is no stranger to the damage that severe weather can inflict on communities, and time and time again, we have stepped up to provide real relief to families affected by storms,” Governor Cuomo said in a news release. “This funding will give residents the resources they need to build back better and stronger as they recover from the flooding they experienced this summer.”
The program was designed and developed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the village of Hoosick Falls, in partnership with the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and the state Homes and Community Renewal. The program features: • Up to $1 million will be made available to the village to purchase and remove up to 13 flood-damaged structures;
• $900,000 to implement green infrastructure projects to hold and slow flood waters upstream of the village; and
• $182,000 to design the flood plain restoration project in the impacted area.
“This is a monumental day for our village,” Hoosick Falls Mayor Rob Allen said in the release. “We have been provided a pathway to make a lasting and permanent solution to a problem that has plagued our village for decades. We are extremely grateful to the Governor, DEC, and DHSES for their months of work on this project. Not only does it show our state government’s commitment to Hoosick Falls, but it is an example of the state providing support and opportunities to one of the many beautiful rural locations in Upstate New York.”
Through this program, the release said, the state will assist in the voluntarily acquisition and demolition of up to 13 flood damaged properties that were built above and adjacent to the flood prone Woods Brook. An engineering consultant working with the village will design a new restoration project to daylight the Woods Brook and install flood plains and natural stream features on the site of the flood damaged properties that — when coupled with other projects — will help withstand a 500-year flood, the release said.
“The goal right now with this program with the funding from the state is to buy these properties from the residents, so that they can land on their feet in an area that is not going to be flood
prone,” Allen said during a phone interview Thursday night, “and we can sit back and use the study to come up with a solid design to fix this once and for all.”
The funding will also be used to design a community park to be developed within the flood prone area in the future. In later phases, the state will collaborate with the village to identify state funds needed to implement the flood plain park project.
“We have had flooding problems with Woods Brook going back to the 1950s and any relief that state can provide would be greatly appreciated,” Hoosick Town Supervisor Mark Surdam said in the release.
This program also will implement green infrastructure projects at the headwaters of the Woods Brook to improve the capacity of the brook and alleviate flooding downstream. These projects will consist of widening the brook, creating wetlands, and heightening culverts, which were identified by a prior study funded by the state.
Allen said Thursday that the next steps related to the state funding is that he has to meet with all of the state agencies involved to get more details about the program, and he also has to sit down with the property owners to figure out how much they are looking for in buyouts. Allen believes that process will take many months.
After that process is over, Allen said, officials will then move towards demolition and then use the study to get the best possible end goal for everyone involved.
Allen also said Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, R-Troy, also helped to recently provided two separate $100,000 grants for culvert repairs and for the other $100,000 for the Woods Brook.