We are certainly having a unique winter with the fluctuating temperatures. The highway guys continue to do a great job keeping our roads clear. We have struggled a bit to have good ice on the rink. We have learned quite a bit and would benefit from some consistent temperatures.

The formal proposal for the village hall project should be complete in about 2 weeks. We are waiting for some information from the bond counsel as well as the architects. The bond counsel is laying out our financial options which will include both USDA and private bonding. We have also discussed our options with the bank. The architect is providing some renderings that will be included in the document as well as some clarifications regarding the estimates. We will be establishing a small group of resident construction advisors for this project. This group will work with the board on the design phase and provide some construction oversight. If you are interested please send me your experience and desire.

The weather has impacted our lake levels significantly. We are now at 245.95 feet which is about 2.5 inches higher than last year at this time. This occurred with the snow melt and the resulting decrease in outflows to preserve the ice around the dam. Late last week the outflows were increased only to be decreased by this week’s warm weather. The forecast indicates we are going to have high water levels, but not flooding waters. The good news is the snow pack is mostly in the lake already. We have just completed an assessment of our sandbagging needs in the event sandbagging will be necessary. We are meeting with State and County Emergency Management staff later today to discuss these needs and the timeframes.

The fire department will be holding an ice rescue class on February 23 and 24. They will be in the water on the 24th. This is fun to watch and great for our firefighters to have this training. Come show your support.

Our next budget workshop is February 27th at 4:30. Hopefully by then we will know if the AIM funding will be restored in the NYS budget. The topic for this meeting will be the Water and Wastewater budgets.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Dave McDowell

Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.info

Village Update – January 31, 2019

Winter is certainly here. The highway guys have done a great job keeping our roads clear and the Water and Wastewater guys have been keeping the ice rink clear. We have now used the resurfacer and have a better surface to skate on. There is definitely a learning curve. It has been great to see so many people use the rink. Rumor has it the Rotary is planning a big family skate soon. If you need skates, Play It Again Sports has many used skates for sale. They are in Henrietta. We have also seen a huge influx of ice fisherman. They seem to be having success and not blocking our roads.

Not much has changed regarding the village hall. We continue to work with the owners, our financial advisors and our attorney on the various issues with each site. A formal proposal is being drafted and will be shared as soon as it is complete. That proposal will be the basis for the board discussion at a future meeting.

We met with the Genesee Transportation Council (GTC) earlier this week and have selected a consultant for the Alternate Transportation Plan (ATP) grant that will happen over the summer. As soon as the GTC has a contract in place we will get a better sense for the specific schedule. This will be a great opportunity for residents to help design our future. I hope many of you will want to participate.

As all of you that are water watchers know, our levels are high. We are currently at 245.75 with a mean to date this month of 245.47. The mean for January 2018 was 245.52 so we are close to where we were last year. All of these levels are about a foot over the long term average. The good news is that the ice has formed in the St. Lawrence and the outflows are going back up. At the beginning of the month the outflows were as high as 8,540 cubic meters per second. They were reduced in the middle of the month to the low 6000’s to support ice formation. Today, they are back to 7470 and I expect the outflows to continue to increase as they been for the last 10 days. Our emergency plan is in place and our next Wayne County Emergency Management meeting is scheduled for late February.

For those interested, Wayne County is hosting a meeting to review their Derelict Property Program on February 12th at 5pm. The meeting is in Cornell Cooperative Extension building on Route 88 in Newark. They will discuss the land bank as well as the target areas for attention.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Dave McDowell

Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.info

Village Update – January 16, 2019

I am sending this out a day early since we were late in getting the public hearing details on our web site. They are there now. We have 3 public hearings beginning at 6:15 tomorrow (Thursday) night. The first is the annual tax cap override law. We pass this every year in the event we have to go above the cap. That has only happened once since there has been a cap and we do not expect it to occur for the 2019-2020 budget. The budget workshops begin on January 29th at 4:30.

The second public hearing deals with our sewer law and the payback of loans associated with the wastewater system. We will pay off the loan for the control system update and the generators this month. The law that allowed us to collect money for that loan is very specific and must now be amended to allow us to collect for the loan we secured to rehabilitate the plant itself. This will result in a slight reduction in that line item on your January and July water bills going forward.

The third deals with parking on Greig St from November 1 through March 31 annually. This is being done to address the emergency situation created last year by the great ice fishing. We have made arrangements with SBYC for ice fisherman to park there.

The ice rink is ready and the tape is coming down today. We will have a porta-potty there soon. We look forward to everyone enjoying some winter fun.

We continue to work toward a formal proposal for the Village hall. We are working with our financial advisors to confirm our analysis that it will not impact the tax rate. We are also working through the specific issues that each site presents, some obvious and some that need to be teased out. When the proposal is ready it will be posted on the web site and be an agenda item for the board meeting. Nothing can be signed until the village board considers a proposal and votes to support it. Much of what you can read in social media contains erroneous assumptions.

If you are following the water levels you know that we are about an inch higher than last year at this time. We will have high water this year, how high will depend upon the winter and spring weather. The outflows have just been reduced to support ice formation. The continued cold will help us as once ice is formed they will increase the outflows again. We have been meeting with Wayne County Emergency Management and have plans in place if needed. I will go into more detail in future e-blasts.

Also, the Village is seeking high-resolution winter photos for the website. Sodus Point has great winter opportunities and would like to show these off. Please send to mswitzer@soduspoint.info with permission to use them.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Dave McDowell
Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.info
www.soduspoint.info

Village Update – January 3, 2019

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday season.

2019 will be a very busy year here in the village. We have the Alternate Transportation Program kicking off this spring to address how we move non-vehicle traffic around. We also have design and hopefully construction work to repair the Wickham Blvd break wall and rebuild a strong barrier at the end of Featherly Drive. We expect the kayak launch at the end of South Ontario street to be in place by summer. We expect to hear from NYS within the next few weeks regarding the grant to update our master plan (LWRP). This is a very significant project for the village that will lay the foundation for grant money to implement several of the plans that currently exist.

Despite what you read in the newspaper or heard in a rumor, no decisions have been made regarding the village hall. The consensus of the public that came to the December 20th workshop was to tear down and rebuild on the existing site. That input, the feedback received privately from many, the information from our architects, our engineers, a few developers, and our financial advisors will now be used to create a formal proposal to be vetted by the board and the public. That will likely take a few weeks as it needs to be very detailed to reduce assumptions and provide a clear path forward. The board is well aware of keeping the tax rate as low as possible.

The ice rink awaits a series of cold seasonal days to be finished. Each time the long range forecast looks to provide an opportunity, things change. So far winter has been too warm. There is significant interest is skating. I know my granddaughters have worn their skates in our house several times to try and practice.

We did experience our first water leak yesterday which is always a sign the winter is here. This occurred in one of the sections of pipe that were not replaced in the big project.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Dave McDowell

Dmcdowell@SodusPoint.info