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Village Update for July 6thJuly 6, 2020
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather. More to come this week.
We have decided to delay the opening of the village hall until July 13th. As of that date, you can call and make an appointment for any services that require personal interaction. Water and Sewer bills can be paid online or be deposited in the drop box. If you mail your payment please keep in mind postmarks are not accepted. The online link is:
water and sewer online payTo clear up some confusion, Blow off day is not a sponsored event. It is an event that happens organically. While technically not allowed by the governor’s restrictions, we expect it will happen. The sheriff has been working with his team and other agencies and will implement their plan. Adjustments will be made throughout the day based on what is actually happening.
Feel free to call or email with any questions or concerns.
Please practice social distancing and stay safe so we can continue to open!
Dave McDowell
Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.infoVillage update 5-26-20
May 26, 2020
I hope everyone enjoyed the great weather over the weekend as we remembered those who lost their lives for our freedom. As the unofficial summer kickoff it was great to see so many boaters on the bay. We will all need to be careful with our personal interactions with people for the foreseeable future.
The River Board is now following Plan 2014 which is why the outflows have been reduced over the last several days to 9,580 cm/s. That represents approximately 200 cm/s over the shipping limits (L limit). It is important for us not to become complacent. The upper lakes are all setting high level records and all that water is coming our way over the next few years. We need to keep contacting our federal elected officials with our concerns. The water level is currently 247.19 and continues to drop slowly. The USACE forecast calls for the water to be 247.05 or 2 inches less than it was Friday on June 22nd.
For those that have sand bags in your yards, please begin to think about a more permanent solution. I expect the level of support for flooding events to continue to decline from NYS. This may make sand bags difficult to come by in the future. In addition to the permanent solutions some have done, there are many temporary barrier options. We will have a list of what we are aware of out soon. A search on the internet will find many to choose from.
The beach grass planting went very well on Friday and Saturday. We had a significant number of volunteers from around the village as well as the landscape architect team from Costich Engineering. The village highway team will continue to put up the snow fence along the berm to help capture the blowing sand. Another planting will be planned for October. The next step in this project is to complete the 60% Design Report and get NYS to approve it. This is the trigger to release funding and will further the permitting of the final project and the walk overs. Our designer, Tom Hart has been a great asset on this project.
We hope the Kayak Launch is back in service later this week.
There will be a “Senior Parade” on Saturday in the business district and around the loop. The Sodus Seniors will be in their decorated cars. This is an opportunity to help them celebrate their high school graduation.
Independence Day celebrations will be very different this year. All the Lighthouse activities are cancelled; the Sunshine Car Parade has been postponed to September 5th. Our fireworks display is still undecided. We have reached out to the Governor’s office among others for direction. The Board will make the final decision at our June meeting on June 18th.
Village tax bills will be mailed on June 1. Please use the drop box or the online service through our web site to pay them. The link to do that is here: https://soduspoint.info/online-payments/
Please take a few minutes soon to complete the 2020 census. Census data is very important for our area. It helps to determine how much federal and state money we get and it helps form our legislative districts. You can access the census at https://2020census.gov/.
The village offices will remain closed to the public until at least Phase 2. All village employees are back to normal work hours and will continue to ready the village for summer. Feel free to call or email with any questions or concerns.
Please practice social distancing and stay safe so we can continue to open!
Dave McDowell
Village Update March 30, 2020The village offices remain closed to the public. Essential work continues in the highway, water and wastewater departments. We are also continuing with our high water preparations, REDI projects and other essential tasks to keep the village moving forward. The building department is open and permits and inspections are still required.
Water and sewer bills are in the mail. There are 3 ways to pay them: mail them, use the drop box in the village hall parking lot or electronically at – https://soduspoint.info/
online-payments/ Please do not bring water bill payments into the village hall, even if someone is here.
We WILL pick up brush next Monday April 6th. After this pick up brush collection will be SUSPENDED until further notice. The brush dump site, behind the old water plant on Featherly Drive is open and you can take your brush there. Please do not put it roadside beyond April 6th.
Please email your concerns or issues and we will do our best to address them promptly. Our emails are:
Dave McDowell dmcdowell@
soduspoint.info Tracy Durham tdurham@
soduspoint.info Melanie Debadts mswitzer@soduspoint.
info Kevin Druschel CEO@soduspoint.
info We also encourage residents to order take out from our local restaurants. We all need to look in on our neighbors and help when we can. If you are aware of unmet needs, please make us aware and we will try to connect the right resources. We will get through this together.
Water levels today are 246.78, up 3.25 inches in the month. Outflows are 8,900 cm/s, down from 10,200 on Friday. The March forecast from USACE indicates there is a 50% chance we will be 247.4 at the peak, we should see the April report next week sometime. Shipping formally starts on Wednesday and that will likely have some impact on the outflows. Both the IJC and River Board have indicated they will set outflows above the safe shipping limit by at least 200 cm/s and possibly as much as 500 cm/s. We’ll see what actually happens.
Our sandbagging plan will be finalized this week. That will allow us to seek the balance of NYS resources needed to implement the plan.
While you have some time, please remember to complete the Census 2020. It only takes a few minutes and it is very important, especially here in upstate NY.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Dave McDowell
Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.info
Village Update 03-12-2020We have updated the look of the e-blast and beginning April 6th will publish every Monday while we have the threat of high water.
The March forecast of lake levels from USACE reduces the level that was forecast in the February report. Hopefully, this plays out as it increases our chances of not flooding this summer. The spring rains are beginning so we will see the water levels rise, we just have to hope that the average or dryer than average conditions continue. Expect a rise of 4 inches by April 6th, still under 247’.
The survey work for flood preparation continues at least through this week. 20,000 sandbags were delivered to the north municipal lot in preparation. If you want some for your property, feel free to help yourself. Once the survey work is complete, we will finalize our plans and review them with Emergency Management. Our next meeting is March 18th. Once the plan is finalized we will share it via this newsletter. Around the village several break walls are being raised and a few homes as well.
The Sheen Housing program has just begun to look at second homes. In order to get money you MUST have some home damage. If you have home damage you will likely see some money to repair your home and potentially your break wall if that is an issue. If you have your application in, pull out your materials so you are prepared for your inspection.
We are taking advantage of the nice weather to get a jump on some of the spring tasks. The road shoulders are all being groomed to repair any plow damage. The ice skating rink is being packed away until next winter, the roads will be swept next. The plows will remain on the big trucks for a few more weeks in the event we have a big spring snow.
The storm water REDI project continues to move forward. The permitting process is now underway. After those comments are received from the many agencies and changes are made to the plans, another public meeting will be scheduled. Likely sometime later in April or early May. The locations of some of the pump stations have been modified to reduce the costs of electrical changes and make the system more efficient. The grade of the roads has also been modified to facilitate better flow of water to storm drains.
The beach dune project has planned some early actions which we hope will happen in April. The permitted to bring in 1200 tons of sand to fill the low spots along the beach is underway. Once complete, snow fencing will be added to try to keep the sand in place as well as capture blowing sand. The goal is to have a consistent elevation of about 252 along the lakeshore this summer.
Both the White Birch project and the Lakestones projects are on hold. Both came in well above budget which was caused in part by rock prices and more significantly a faulty design by the state engineers to create the original budget. Apparently this is happening in other municipalities as well. We have reached out to the REDI Commission for help.
We are having what we expect to be our final budget workshop on Monday, March 16th at 4:30 in the village hall. We have some work remaining on the general budget. Both the water and sewer budgets are in good shape.
Permits are now in hand for both the Featherly Drive and Wickham Blvd revetment projects. Unfortunately, the projects remain over budget, even with some design changes. We are working to resolve the budget differences in the next few days or put the projects out for a rebid. We’d like to get Wickham Blvd repairs in place before summer.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Dave McDowell
Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.info
Village of Sodus Point
P.O. Box 159
Sodus Point, NY 14555PLANNING BOARD AGENDA Regular MEETING MONDAY, OCTOBER 19th, 2020PLANNING BOARD AGENDA Regular MEETING MONDAY, OCTOBER 19th, 2020 7PM Village Hall 8356 Bay Street LWRP Review, John Santelli, 8299 South Shore Rd, Sodus Point to repair existing breakwall per DEC application. (CODE 121) Preliminary Site PlanReview, Conrahd Mohr III, 8541 Greig Street, Sodus Point to Reconstruct north roof over...
Village Update February 27, 2020This has been an interesting month with water levels. Between the 1st of the month and the 26th, the level has dropped 2 tenths (2.4 inches). That’s very unusual for February. The River Board has kept the outflows high, adjusting them several times each week up and down. They have still not crossed the 11,000 cm/s threshold which the plan allows them to do. I expect we will learn that this has been a dryer month than normal as was January. Hopefully, a dry spring will follow.
I’m sure you have heard that shipping will get underway on April 1. While later than the shipping industry would like by 12 days, it is not really a delay in shipping. Over the last 10 years shipping has started the last few days of March or the 1st of April. The net result of water levels will be small.
I expect the work to measure the heights of the existing sandbags will conclude next week. This will provide the information needed to finalize our sandbagging plans for 2020. We also expect delivery of some sandbags next week which we will store until needed. We will continue to work with Wayne County Emergency Management to determine if and when to deploy sandbags. We are watching long term weather forecasts as well as the work of the River Board in an effort to expend no more resources than necessary to ensure we stay dry in 2020. The River Board has stated that their plan is to keep the water on Lake Ontario below 247.7’. Based on past experience that seems unlikely but time will tell.
All four REDI projects submitted the Engineering Reports to NYS on the 14th. They are currently under review by various state agencies. These are the triggers to obtain funding contracts. The reports are available on our web site https://soduspointredi.com and in the village office.
The Stormwater project is in the 50%+ design state and permitting is underway with NYSDOT and NYSDEC. There have been several changes to road alignment and grades to ensure drainage and avoid existing utilities. The pump stations are not yet finalized in design and some of the locations are being re-evaluated. This project is going very well at this point.
The Beach Dune project has identified some pre-work that will occur this spring to begin to gather sand and reduce the need for aquadams. Some 1200 tons of sand are planned for the initial work to bring the entire area to a consistent elevation of approximately 252’. Snow fence will also be placed to both capture sand and define the proposed location of the dune. Permitting for these actions is underway with NYSDEC, USACE, and NYSDOS. These actions were recommended by the Beach Advisory Committee that is working with the designer.
Both Lakestones and White Birch projects are facing budget issues. The designs proposed by OBG, the engineering firm hired by NYS do not meet the DEC guidelines. These designs are what the budgets were built from by OBG. Much more stone is required than specified in those initial plans. Combined with the increase in rock prices, we have work to do on these projects to get them in the budget. NYS is adding the large rock required to their state bid list and we will learn those prices in the next couple of weeks. We are also exploring alternative solutions in both material and design for these areas.
I hope that we can award the bid for the Wickham Blvd and Featherly Drive Revetment projects at our March meeting. The engineers and the lowest bidder met again this week to review actual conditions, possible design changes and sources of rock. We expect this work will help reduce the deficit for this grant-funded project. Permitting has been resolved on both projects.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Dave McDowell
Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.infoVillage Update – February 7, 2020We had our first county-wide emergency management meeting of 2020 on Tuesday here in the village. Most of the lakefront towns were represented as was the county departments, NYSDOT and NYS Emergency Management. We all believe we need to begin even sooner this year since the water is so high. As a result, we will declare a State of Emergency on Monday, February 10th. This will allow teams to go on private property and assess the existing sandbag walls and break walls. This will provide the information needed to plan the number of sandbags required to protect the exposed areas to at least 250’. It is likely that several areas will be protected as high as 251’. In areas where we experienced significant waves in the past, we will use grain bags filled with sand as they were proven to work very well along Edgemere Drive in 2019.
When the existing bags are inspected we plan to take elevation measurements of every break wall and existing sandbag wall. This will allow for more accurate temporary flood barriers to be constructed. Nine pumps are being ordered from NYSDHSES (NYS Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services) and delivered to Wayne County Highway. That highway department will service each pump and load test them to ensure we have working pumps. As the water level exceeds 247, we will coordinate with the Sheriff Dive Team to place the plugs as we deploy the pumps. We have also requested that 20,000 sandbags that NYS has stored be brought to the village during the month of February. We will place them in one of the parking areas and cover them until teams are here to place them. NYS is also ramping up to begin to fill sandbags in prisons around the state this year. That will be more efficient than transporting the inmates to a location to do that work.
The USACE forecast on January 31 calls for only another inch rise during February. While I hope this is the case, they have been routinely wrong over the last several years. The current monthly forecast (January) shows a 5% chance of the water reaching 248.5, almost 7 inches lower than 2019. The feeling at our meeting was to hope for the best and plan for the worst.
The REDI projects are continuing to move forward. The Engineer’s Report for each project is due next Friday and each project is on track to make that date. These reports are lengthy and must address many factors whether they are relevant to the project or not. These reports are the vehicle to get the funding contracts in place with NYS.
We have been notified by the DEC that they will issue permits for both the Featherly Drive and Wickham Blvd revetment projects. We expect to get the Wickham Blvdpermit next week and the other at the end of a 30 day comment period that is underway. When we opened the bids for these projects, all of them exceeded our grant balance. The engineer has worked with the lowest bidder and some design changes that have reduced the cost some. Unfortunately, we have more work to do. I hope to have an update on this for our February Board Meeting on the 20th.
I will be out of the office beginning at noon on the 11th and returning on the 20th. Feel free to reach out to the village office or to Deputy Mayor Kallusch.
Dave McDowell
Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.infoPhotos © Chris Trine, John Frisbie, Timmerman Photography, Cathy Contant, John Kutko Digital
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