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Quoted Text

Long history of high water near High Bridge

    Rotterdam will never get it right! By Rotterdam, I’m referring to the High Bridge Road area.
    Fifty-some years ago, I lived on Palmer Street off High Bridge Road. This is before any of the “plots” were built next to the railroad. Our street dead-ended in the woods. Well, Palmer Street flooded every year, come rain or melted snow. I believe this is when I first started writing to the editor.
    My children, then 6 and 8 years old, had to climb on top of snow banks to get to the school bus. I wrote my letter — it was published!
    Shortly thereafter, evidently reading my letter, our river was “forded” by an official in a black cadillac followed by a bulldozer. But that came to naught. They left and never came back!
    The moral of this story — some 50 years later — is, the more some things change, like an exit for cars to drive out now, the more things stay the same! For instance, the lake that still remains at the end of Palmer Street off High Bridge Road.
    FRANCES PAYETTE
    Altamont

Much of Rotterdam is built on land with a very high water table and b4 allowing developers to just do what they wanted and the residents getting stuck with flooded basements and yards the town should have passed legislation to allow only smart development which would have prevented some 50 years of misery for the residents of this town.