To Mayor&Rye City Council Members re: Flood Mitigation Funding for Rye in 2013 Budget

We the undersigned request ongoing funding and efforts to mitigate flooding in Rye.
We petition the current Mayor and City Council members to set aside sufficient monies in the 2013 budget to:
• retain a qualified engineering company to gather current flood hydraulic maps and data and do sufficient additional flood remediation surveys
• create a feasible mitigation plan to control flooding in the Blind Brook watershed, starting at the Westchester County owned Airport and through the heart (and soul) of Rye all the way to Long Island Sound,
 • Use such study to obtain funding for a flood mitigation project from County, State, Federal, and local sources.
 • We urge any new members of the City government elected in 2013 to carry forward on this important public safety mission.
Background: Rye has a flood problem.
• Blind Brook keeps flooding and causing great damage to the Rye Central Business district, the Middle and High Schools, the Locust Avenue Fire House, the YMCA, the Rye Free Reading Room and residences, as great cost to the City.
• Flooding creates grave safety risks to first responders and City Staff
• Flooding creates environmental hazards (oil spill at Highland Hall) as well as the anguish and expense of having families relocate to temporary residences, in some cases for up to a year.
 Situation: While the current City government has, as have previous ones, studied flood remediation, the only flood control to date has been the (not yet operational) installation of a sluice gate at Bowman Avenue Dam.
• In view of the property loss ($85 million in 2007 alone) environmental damage, loss of life, disruption to private and public businesses and the great anguish associated with flooding, we petition for flood mitigation funding in the 2013 Rye City Budget

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