I.P. Village to get $1.8 million drainage study grant

The Village of Island Park has been awarded federal grant of $1.8 million to fund the first phase of a project to upgrade the Village’s municipal storm drainage system. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Kathleen Rice made the announcement on Sept.1, saying it was the first step to better protect the Island Park community from future storms.

During Hurricane Sandy, the Village was inundated with a six-to-eight foot storm surge that damaged 95 percent of the homes in Island Park, as well as two schools, the public library and many businesses.

“Almost three years after Sandy brought a massive storm surge that left Island Park completely under water, this first installment of federal funding will allow the Village to start overhauling their storm drainage system so that residents and properties are better protected from extreme weather events in the future,” said Rice.

This first phase of the funding installment will cover the costs of a comprehensive engineering study of the Village’s drainage system, municipal bulkheads and roadways in order to determine where drainage pipes need to be replaced or improved, where new bulkheads need to be constructed, and where chronically-flooded roads need to be raised.

Mayor Michael McGinty said village officials have been preparing an engineering timeline, and a request for proposals process, in anticipation of this grant.

The Village will use the recommendations in this study to implement an upgraded municipal storm drainage system including 42,000 feet of new storm sewers, tide gates, sub-surface storm water retention, three potential road elevations, and 2,000 feet of upgraded bulkhead. The total estimated cost of the entire project is $40,000,000, 100 percent of which will be funded by the federal government through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s [FEMA] Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.