To the Editor:

On Sunday, March 9, a failure in a high-pressure water line forced the Village of Canton Public Housing Authority to evacuate one of its high-rise apartment buildings in order to maintain safety for the residents and to facilitate repairs. This event was highly disruptive for our tenants and required assistance from a number of community partners to successfully accomplish.

On behalf of the whole Board of Directors, I wish to publicly acknowledge and thank those entities that went out of their way to assist the Authority with both addressing this logistical emergency and with identifying and mitigating the damage done as a result of this failure. Despite being called on a Sunday afternoon, the Authority received substantial and meaningful assistance from:

Canton Fire Department for its work assessing damage and mitigating the impact of the flooding;

Local Hoteliers in multiple locations which provided short-term housing assistance and were flexible in providing it at a moment’s notice;

The Best Western of Canton for allowing us to stage tenants in its conference facilities while we worked though housing logistics and for providing food and beverage to our neighbors on short notice;

Canton Central School and the County’s Public Transit Agency for providing mass transit and accessible buses to safely transport our tenants first to a staging area and then to/from hotels in the area;

The County Office for the Aging which assisted with meals and coordination of services;

Several local medical support service agencies for being flexible in meeting client needs while displacement was required.

With professional assistance rendered by KMH Restoration Services, S&L Electric and M&S Fire Safety, the Authority was able to rapidly repair damage and restore the apartment building for full occupancy within short order.

The Board would be remiss if it did not acknowledge the time and effort of our maintenance staff which arrived within minutes of the alarm being triggered and our front office staff which arrived shortly thereafter and managed the complicated logistics required in this displacement event. The Board is grateful for their professionalism and their commitment to the well-being and safety of our tenants. The whole management team worked long hours to minimize the duration of the disruption.

Lastly, but most importantly, the Board is very appreciative of all of our tenants for their assistance, patience and cooperation during this unfortunate emergency situation.  

Keith Zimmerman, Chair
Village of Canton Public Housing Authority