Another way to handle it is to hire a hydrological engineer to do the study and then let a lawyer present the facts to the courts. No matter what way you go it costs a lot of money and that's why there are so few lawsuits.
To go to court to decide who pays??? that is tongue in cheek....it still depends on the work done and it's standard......a lawsuit is a lawsuit and still no one wins......
I want to know who actually has the knowledge and manpower right now that could do it....not for public exposure or votes (friends of friends of friends etc) but actual knowledge and the where with all to get the job done and say "It is finished"........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Town OKs survey to study drainage in Koolkill area ROTTERDAM — Town officials approved a topographical survey of Horizon Boulevard and Bluebird Lane for the purpose of correcting drainage problems in the two culde-sac neighborhoods. Board members unanimously approved an agreement Wednesday with Azimuth Surveying & Cartography of Burnt Hills to map the area. The study will cost up to $1,600 and help verify the elevation and forward efforts to alleviate the high groundwater situation in the Koolkill Meadows subdivision. In November, Cobleskill-based Lamont Engineers suggested the town could build a storm drain system 3 feet lower in the neighborhood and then reroute the line to an existing outflow system off Viewpoint Drive. It would cost between $10,000 and $20,000 to create drains that would carry the groundwater away.
This is study number 2 for those of us that are keeping track of all the studies being done by the town. I just wish that I could start counting completed projects improving living conditions for residents of Rotterdam.
I think that it would be in Rotterdam's best interest, to have future developers pay for these same studies BEFORE they get the okay to proceed with their development.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Bumble, you're being far too logical and your idea makes way too much sense. Rotterdam should have making the developers do these studies b4 building for the last 30 years but the builders objected because it's costs too much money to do the study.
ROTTERDAM Town to seek bids for drainage improvements BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Rotterdam officials have scheduled special meeting to call for bids for drainage improvements in the Koolkill Meadows subdivision. Board members will meet in Town Hall at 7 p.m. Wednesday to approve a resolution calling for bids. The drainage improvements are needed to reduce ground water issues that have plagued the neighborhood for years. The project will construct an independent system to collect groundwater that will run within the right of way along Horizon Boulevard and through a town easement at the end of Bluebird Lane to an existing storm sewer pipe. Once a contractor is secured, the project could be started during the fall. “This administration is moving forward on fixing this problem,” said Michael Griesemer, the town’s public works director. Studies conducted by the Cobleskill-based Lamont Engineers in November initially determined that the neighborhood’s faulty drain system could be lowered and then rerouted to an existing outflow system off Viewpoint Drive. However, Griesemer said this solution would require the town to excavate nearly 20 feet, which could then undermine foundations or pools in the neighborhood. “You could risk property damage,” he said. Board members unanimously approved $10,000 to hire engineer Brett Steenburgh to prepare construction documents and bid services for the Horizon Boulevard and Bluebird Lane project. Griesemer was unsure how much Steenburgh’s solution would cost. The drainage project is among three slated for the town during the coming months. Town officials are still planning drainage improvements in the Masullo Estates development as well as Houlton Avenue between Crane Street and Altamont Avenue. Rotterdam is still negotiating with the developers of Helderberg Estates to acquire a property needed to advance the Masullo fi x. Donald Zee, an attorney for the developers, did not return a call for comment.
It's way too early in the morning to get worked up so I guess I'll just go to the meeting Wednesday.
Just a few observations....we seem to have a habit of paying Lamont Engineers first to get a "solution" that isn't going to work. Then we spend more money and hire Steenburgh to get a "solution" that we don't know how much will cost.
Masullo Estates was supposed to provide the blueprint for fixing drainage throughout town. I suppose it has in unintended ways. (I'll lay good money this project doesn't get done by fall.)
Where are the bid specs for Masullo Estates? Why isn't that piece of land acquired yet?
There will probably be more information about the drainage issue in the Rotterdam newsletter. It's an election year, so we should expect a newsletter in October.
I would like to see the proposed solution for the drainage problems for both Horizon Estates and Masullo Estates b4 the town goes ahead with their proposed plans. Every time you talk to the engineer doing the proposed fix you never get answers to very important questions about why his plan will work and the other engineering studies were discarded. I'm a little concerned that the fixes will be too quick and incomplete and the problems will still exist after the job is done if all the causes are not addressed completely. I fear cost will drive the solutions instead doing the job correctly. Why is only the engineer who drew up the drainage system for Helderberg Meadows project being used instead of other reputable engineering firms whose estimates were discarded when they were submitted for the Masullo Estates project?
ROTTERDAM Residents skeptical, hopeful about drainage project BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Residents along Horizon Boulevard and Bluebird Lane are hoping that a town drainage project will help alleviate persistent groundwater problems they’ve experienced for more than three years. Rotterdam officials are planning to run an 8-inch perforated pipe through the right of way, which will collect ground water and divert it away from the two cul-dusac neighborhoods. But many of the homeowners attending a special Town Board meeting Wednesday weren’t fully convinced that the town’s plan will have much of an impact on the flooding that routinely plagues some basements. “I’m a little hesitant to believe it will work,” said Bluebird Lane resident Mike Munroe, whose sump pump runs almost constantly. “I don’t think they know how much water is down there.” With two members absent, the Town Board passed a resolution putting the project out to bid. Bids are scheduled to be opened in mid-August, with work on the project beginning sometime this fall. Engineer Brett Steenburgh said the piping network will be surrounded with 12 inches of stone and be buried about 6 to 8 feet in the ground. Groundwater collected in the pipe will be diverted to an area between two vacant lots on Bluebird Lane, where the town holds an easement. Steenburgh estimated the project cost at between $200,000 and $220,000. He said the area where the water is diverted will need to be maintained by the town on a yearly basis. Although the project is expected to significantly lower the groundwater, Steenburgh advised the residents to connect their existing foundation drains into the closed system once it’s built. He estimated that each connection would cost about $1,500, provided the home was constructed with foundation drains. “The only way this will work is if the homeowners connect to the system,” he said. The Koolkill Meadows subdivision with Sunrise Estates includes a total of 16 homes within the two problematic cul-de-sac developments. All of the homes were supposed to be constructed with basements located no less than “3 feet above the known high ground water elevations,” according to the plans approved by the town in 1992. Studies conducted by the Cobleskill-based Lamont Engineers in November initially determined that the neighborhood’s faulty drain system could be lowered and then rerouted to an existing outflow system off Viewpoint Drive. However, Steenburgh said this solution would require the town to excavate nearly 20 feet, which could then undermine foundations or pools in the neighborhood. Some residents expressed skepticism about the project and questioned its timing. Construction is expected to begin on two additional homes approved for a pair of lots on the north side of the Bluebird Lane cul-de-sac. Others suggested the town may have underestimated the degree of groundwater coursing through the earth. Horizon Boulevard resident Paul Waldron doubted the drainage pipes would have much of an effect because the groundwater appears to flow past the homes toward the street. “Before the water hits the 8-inch pipe, it’s going to hit our homes first,” he said. Horizon Boulevard resident Rick Delorenzo was equally doubtful. But he said he’s keeping an open mind after contending with an increasingly large puddle in his basement over the past year. “I’ll try anything at this point,”
The residents are correct what has been proposed is nothing more than an 8" leach pipe to allow the water to sink into the ground and during wet periods the ground will become saturated and the system will again fail but it's the cheap easy way out for the town. The system currently in Horizon Estates is not the one that was approved by the planning board but an ok by some unknown town employee who allowed a major change to the system when the builder said that the elevation was too low to put it in as designed. At that point the project should have gone back to the planning board to have a new system designed that would work. This solution is nothing more than a band-aid placed on a hemorrhaging artery. The town full well knows that there is not a french drain system around the foundations because it was pointed out to them over 2 years ago and if a french drain system was needed it should have been the builders responsibility to place it when the homes were built. I was skeptical when the Lamont study was dismissed that this was going to be a cheap quick inadequate solution and when the Town Board disbanded the water board that truly did have the residents best interest at heart and tried to find a real solution to the water problems in the town. Watch out Masullo Estates you're next.
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