Westwood
In March, the borough secured $1 million in flood elevation grants from FEMA to elevate four residential properties that have suffered severe repetitive flooding from the Pascack or Musquapsink brooks.
Since then, mayor Raymond Arroyo and Administrator Karen Hughes have been collaborating with state and federal agencies on the flooding situation affecting the borough. Moreover, efforts to coordinate a larger, region-wide study of flood mitigation in Pascack Valley are ongoing.
This past fall, four Pascack Valley towns, including Westwood, completed drone studies of the streams and brooks flowing through their towns. These drone studies may form the basis for regional flood control mitigation efforts, which Arroyo has championed, regularly updating residents via Pascack Press.
Similar to the streambank erosion around two sanitary manholes in Washington Township (noted above) Arroyo told Pascack Press that they are “prioritizing” work around two sanitary manholes identified in the Westwood drone survey. We hope for more details on the drone studies and related costs to be disclosed. (River Vale and Hillsdale are the two other towns cooperating in a four-town drone study.)
Westwood is also the lead agency in a $200,000 study by Stevens Institute of Technology, gathering data to determine if a Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) computer model can be utilized by towns and Veolia North America to conserve reservoir capacity while also mitigating downstream flooding. Arroyo told us that Hughes was gathering historical flood data to assist the FIRO study.
Next, Woodcliff Lake…