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ROTTERDAM
Soggy ground plan offered
Town hopes to buy land for drainage area
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Town officials hope to acquire property behind the Masullo Estates development that could help alleviate some of the neighborhood’s persistent drainage problems.
   Town Board member John Mertz said the new owners of the property — which lies between the end of East Lucille Lane and the proposed 261-unit Helderberg Meadows project — have agreed to a deal that would transfer the property to the town. The property has long been sought by the town because it rests in an area where ground water from the saturated development could be drained to a future storm water system for Helderberg Meadows.
   “We’ve locked that property up,” Mertz said during a meeting attended by nearly two dozen Masullo residents Monday. “The property is in control of a third party and has been offered to the town.”
   In response to that news, board members will consider a resolution Wednesday authorizing Supervisor Steve Tommasone to broaden the scope of the town’s contract with project engineer Brett Steenburgh. The resolution calls for up to $40,500 to be spent on a larger engineering study incorporating the property into the drainage project.
   “We want to look at everything,” Tommasone said.
   Steenburgh said the new study would investigate establishing a drain from East Lucille Lane to a pond, which would then empty into a lower-lying stormwater stream serving Helderberg Meadows. He said the concept for the drainage is similar to one originally planned for Masullo Estates, but never completed.
   “When they built Masullo Estates, they tried to do that,” he said, “But when they did, they didn’t build it long enough.”
   Although cost of the drainage project may increase, Steenburgh said the cost for an earlier proposed dry sewer line wouldn’t change from original estimates. He said survey work could begin within the coming weeks and the project could begin sometime next spring.
   Tommasone said the developers of Helderberg Meadows purchased the land, which was previously owned by Carmen Masullo. He said the town will negotiate to acquire full control of the land.
   “We want title of the property for the town to solve the drainage issues,” he said.
   Board member Joe Signore warned even the expanded proj- ect may not solve all the neighborhood’s drainage issues. He said residents of the neighborhood should understand some homes might still experience problems even if the fixes proposed by the town are instituted.
   “The best case scenario may still leave some residents disappointed,” he said.