WEST NYACK– Klein Avenue is about to get some much-needed relief from the catastrophic flooding that has plagued the neighborhood for the past 50 years.
Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann joined the town council, Rockland County Executive Ed Day, Congressman Mondaire Jones, and State Senator Ken Zebrowski in breaking ground on the Klein Avenue Levee Improvement Project, a long-awaited extension of the flood-bank.
A few yards from a small manmade lake, the homes that line Klein Avenue have long been the victim of severe flooding and water damage. Super-storms like Irene, Sandy, and Lee have repeatedly left homeowners to contend with up to eight feet of water in their basements, necessitated evacuation by boat, according to Hoehmann.
The lake, which was created in the 1950s and is fed by the Hackensack River, is infamous for overflowing during rainstorms and driving up the flood insurance for many homes in West Nyack. This new project will raise the levee protecting the neighborhood by three feet and also extend the barrier by 400 feet: the town will use more than 2,000 yards of filler soil to complete the expansion.
Hoehmann thanked Congressman Jones for “cutting through the red tape” and securing the Army Corps of Engineer permits necessary to break ground on the project. He also thanked Senator Zebrowski for securing the necessary permits from the DEC. Clarkstown had previously waited 14 months for approval to begin the expansion before Jones acquired the permits in six weeks.
Hoehmann said the work should be completed in a year.
The project will cost a total of $6.7 million with $4.7 million coming from the federal government. Congressman Jones stated that the funds were a part of the Biden administration’s focus on infrastructure development and vowed that the levee project is the first of a series of infrastructure improvements planned for the county. “We pay so much money in taxes and we should be getting back our fair share from the federal government,” said Jones.
