By Paul Westmoore
It appears a large majority of the 900 homes included in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s proposed flood plain map 18 months ago will not be subject to pay anywhere from $600 to $1,200 a year in flood insurance when that map becomes official Sept. 17.
Timothy Walck, the town’s engineer from Wendel Dusherer Engineers, said Monday the town’s challenge to the original proposal was successful in a majority of instances and eliminated over two-thirds of the homes from that map, thus saving those homeowners the expense of purchasing flood insurance as required by federal regulations.
Supervisor Robert Cliffe said the board had Wendel Dusherer did some research and put together a flood plain map for the town which showed mistakes in FEMA’s original assessments and prompted the federal agency to make adjustments on how many homes were included on the flood plain map.
The board took further action Monday to eliminate even more homes from the flood plain map in the Bergholz area by approving a Letter of Map Revision which FEMA officials told the town it will honor and adopt within 24 hours of receiving it.
Walck said FEMA officials told him even though the agency will forward the current map to Congress to meet a March 17 deadline, a move that will make the map official six months later on Sept. 17 — FEMA officials will adopt the changes on the town’s Letter of Map Revision. Those changes will go into effect on Sept. 18, making adjustments to the Bergholz area of the Flood Plain Map.
He said that could take a number of homes in Bergholz, which have been included in the flood plain for as much as 30 years, off the map. He didn’t know how many homes will be affected until after he sees the final map.
In other business, the board approved placing street lights in very dark areas on Fritz Road. The lights will be installed at Fritz and Shawnee roads, Hill and Fritz roads and along the curve on Fritz.
The board agreed to accept $145,000 from Crown Castle Co. in exchange for a permanent easement to use the cell tower at the town highway garage instead of paying an annual fee of $11,000 for that right. Cliffe said the town could use the money this year when it’s strapped with a very limited budget. Town officials said the move was a good one considering the tower may not always be needed by private companies, and it would take 13 years for the town to collect that much money from Crown Castle under the current arrangement.
The board also voted to ask Niagara County to consider lowering the speed limit along the length of Lockport Road within the town to 45 miles per hour, down from 55 mph and 50 mph, as a safety measure.
Councilmen also voted to slap people who give various departments bad checks with a $20 service charge. Violators also will have to pay their bills like water and sewer charges and property taxes with cash or by certified or cashier’s checks for a minimum of three years after one of their checks bounce.
