BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village is considering an updated engineering study of its flooding and stormwater issues so it can go after various funding sources for construction of mitigation measures.

The village, like other communities in the North Country, was hit with floods from excessive stormwater in August, leaving numerous streets and neighborhoods under water.

Last month, Village Mayor Alexandra Jacobs Wilke directed Fred Hanss, the village’s planning and development director, to research grant funding sources that could help with future construction of stormwater mitigation strategies.

At the village board meeting Monday, Oct. 8, Hanss reviewed the various funding sources available. He told village officials, however, that an updated stormwater study should be completed to allow the village to pursue the funding sources.  

A study in 2018 looked at the Crosstown Canal and related stormwater management strategies, but nothing has been done with those recommendations or the funding sources in the engineering report. Hanss said that since that time, however, the state has increased its investment in infrastructure and additional funding could be available to the village.

Hanss told the board that the funding sources available for stormwater management construction projects in New York State include:

• Clean Water State Revolving Fund
• Community Development Plot Grant Program
• State infrastructure grant programs.
• USDA Rural Development grants or loans
• Northern Border Regional Commission grants.

“So there are resources available to the village to begin tackling the stormwater management issue,” Hanss said.

Hanss told village board members however, that to apply for these funding sources the village will have to get an updated engineering report completed.

“The one we did in 2018 is aged. It will have to be relatively recent, less than a year,” he said.

Hanss said the village’s next step is to send out a request for qualifications to engineering firms. He said the village will have to produce funding for that. Study costs typically start around $50,000, he said.

Later during the public comment section of the meeting, village resident Tracy Wanamaker asked the village to consider partnering with the town on stormwater mitigation project grants since at least some any future work would be outside the village.

Pat Gagnon, a Pine Street resident, spoke also, asking the village to include Pine Street in their flood study. Gagnon said he had lived on Pine for several decades and has had six floods in that time, most recently a flood caused by a burst beaver dam in May the flooded several homes and the road, and then the hurricane-influenced flooding in August.

“In May I replaced everything in my basement and then in August I lost it all again,” he said.

Wilke agreed that the street should be included and pointed out that the village has six different watersheds that funnel into the community that should be reviewed in the study.