Village of Lewiston taking aim at resident concerns

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

Trustees in the Village of Lewiston targeted current resident concerns at Monday’s monthly board meeting.

Flooding

Approximately 60 residences were impacted by two recent heavy rainstorms.

Mayor Dan Cota said he and Department of Public Works Superintendent Anthony Mang took a tour of the “problem areas that have been identified through our recent flooding, based upon mapping.” He noted, “We’ve identified four zones, with one zone being 80% of our issues. The 80% of our issues, we’re currently working with the state, our engineer, to determine the best ways to improvements.”

Cota said there is a storm sewer capacity problem.

“Our system, when we’re bone dry, we can take about 3 inches of rain in a short period of time without flooding,” he said. “You get above that, we start to have issues, and it starts to go up in certain zones and works its way out further.

“Rough calculations that I’ve done is it takes about four days to gain 1 inch. So, it takes about 12 days to get back to a bone-dry state, where we can take another 3 inches of rain.”

Cota said the village will be more proactive in monitoring the less-affected zones – “a lot of the smaller zones we looked at today, I think, are relatively easy fixes”

“Some maintenance things, for sure,” Mang said.

“We’re just going to move forward on it and do what we can do to improve,” Cota said.

The village is actively engaged in conversations with state leaders to address the larger problem zone, which Cota said is centered on the north side of Center Street and “radiates out from the low point of Baker and Oxbow. It is not a linear circle, however, and extends irregularly out, sort of like a blob depending on other factors.”

He emphasized that, “while this is the heaviest impacted area as far as number of residents, it is not our singular focus, and we are working throughout the village to help reduce the impact of high-volume rain events.”

Waterfront docks

Cota said, “We’ve made a lot of progress” on finding and enacting a strategy wherein waterfront docks will be able to withstand winter weather events.

The village is working with manufacturer Wahoo Docks on an engineering plan and anticipates receiving updated blue prints this week “that we’ll be able to look at and start to get costs associated with it,” Cota said.

Ice buildup damaged the docks and left the fingers unusable this summer. The mayor recently said insurance money would be used to leverage additional funding for a permanent fix.

“The engineering solution that they believe is viable at this point in time, and that we’re leaning towards, is a removable dock system with a slip and pull system,” Cota said.

He also noted the Lewiston Police Department has been called to address boaters parking in and around the closed docks.

Peach Festival, Artpark double-bill

Cota addressed Lewiston Police Department Chief Mike Salada regarding two large happenings on Saturday, Sept. 12: the Niagara County Peach Festival, and a concert with O.A.R at Artpark. He asked if State Parks or the State Parks Police had reached out regarding safety coordination.

Salada said, “I spoke to Capt. (Christopher) Rola from the State Parks Police last week for quite some time. We’re basically just going with the same approach we used two years ago: All hands on deck; big police presence; and we’ll do the best we can to manage the traffic flow. It’s going to be tough, especially with no parking for the Peach Festival up top” along the plateau, “combined with both Artpark and Peach Festival parking restrictions in the village.

“We survived it last time. I don’t anticipate anything different this time. Our crews do a great job.

“They will be opening the slip ramp” to the Niagara Scenic Parkway, “despite it being below what they normally would open the slip ramp for. But, combining the two separately – the two events – they felt it was prudent to do that.”

Deputy Mayor Tina Coppins said she spoke with Artpark & Company President Dave Wedekindt, who informed her the venue will cap tickets at 5,500.

Salada said, “5,500 on a non-event night would be just fine. We can handle that with no issues. Adding the Peach Festival – I don’t even know what they get in population; 10,000 that day?”

Cota said the Lewiston Kiwanis Club, which organizes the Peach Festival, expects 10,000 people to attend during the day on Saturday, and between 6,000 and 7,000 at night.

“Basically, while the concert’s happening, we’re going to have 10,000 to 12,000” people in the village,” he said.

“We’ll be prepared,” Salada responded.

Cota offered the village would provide any necessary assistance.

Salada said, “The most important thing is going to be ensuring that those emergency evacuation routes that we always highlight – Onondaga Street and other areas – stay clear. And then a lot of that is going to be on us, to ensure that we’re ticketing them.”

The Department of Public Works is striping no-parking spaces on Center Street to prevent obstruction of pedestrian views at crosswalks. LPD also has new electronic bikes for officers to use in patrolling.

Cota asked Salada to track the overtime required for the LPD to provide safety services over the course of the two events.

Trustees also are looking into the seasonal parking situation along the plateau, namely the fact that people looking to use the fishing spaces, flag-football field and birding area are subject to pay for parking on concert nights.

Transparency

Board members voted 4-1 (Nick Conde dissenting) to enact a livestreaming policy, wherein municipal meetings could be livestreamed so as to “supplement” “the requirements of the New York State Open Meetings Law.”

Cota said that, currently, there is not technology in place to provide such a service, but that he is including livestreaming in a list of necessary upgrades when speaking with internet technology providers. He said it’s part of a “composite plan” enacted in ongoing IT negotiations.