Greenport Town Board Workshop Provides a Path Forward to Deal with Rain
- Tassilo von Parseval
- Aug 6
- 4 min read
It was always expected that Wednesday's Greenport Town Board Workshop and Meeting, held on August 5th, might become a volatile affair. After last week's cataclysmic rain, followed by the revelation that Hudson Valley Fisheries was going to shut down and a Greenport police officer who crashed a police vehicle in her attempt to apprehend a shop-lifter while being under the influence of alcohol, there was no shortage of topics to discuss.
Those who expected spectacle got what they had hoped for. But that would not be for another hour. And another post—despite our best efforts, we found it impossible to cover everything in a single article due to the unmitigated chaos that would erupt in the regular Town Board meeting following this workshop.
Early into the meeting, council member Frank Iaccino suffered what appeared to be a severe migraine attack and had to be helped out of the room by Supervisor Eldridge. He would miss the rest of the evening and thus the council was reduced to four members. This would become an issue later on, after the workshop.
In order to preserve narrative integrity, some of the items and statements mentioned in this article occurred during the second portion of the meeting, the regular Town Board meeting. We decided to report them as if they happened during the workshop since we think that this provides more clarity to the reader as to what was discussed and decided.
Q&A Regarding Last Week's Rain Event
The meeting began at 5 PM with the workshop portion. The main item on its agenda was a Q&A session with Water and Wastewater Superintendent James Rutkey, Highway Superintendent John Mausolf and Town Engineer George Schmitt after last week's rain event which condemned two houses for collapsed basement walls and wreaked havoc in multiple other homes, predominantly in Lorenz Park.
Numerous town residents recounted what had happened to their properties. The issues appear to be two-fold: Many houses in Lorenz Park simply flooded with one family describing quite graphically how water gushed in one side and out the other in the process destroying every room. Mark Taylor, chief of the Greenport Fire Department, recounted how around 30 fire fighters were grouped into smaller task forces to allow for faster dispatch to buildings that needed their basements pumped out. James Rutkey and his guys from the Water Department were up until the wee hours of 4 AM in the morning to field calls.
The other type of problem encountered by some even more unfortunate home owners is more nefarious: sewage backflow. Patricia Burt had bought her house on Virginia Ave sixteen years ago. Audience members nodded vigorously as Patricia recounted how she bought the house from Mr. Robinson "who was the first black school teacher in Hudson". She proceeded to give a heart-wrenching account whereby even after installing backflow prevention devices, raw sewage would still flow back into her basement and she pleaded to the town board: "Please, do something for the home owners - it's not fair. We can't sell our home. We have to disclose it! Who's gonna buy a sewer basement house?"
Later, during the actual town board meeting and after the workshop, council member James Dolan produced a letter that Patricia Burt had addressed to the town board and asked Supervisor Kathy Eldridge to read it. In it, Patricia summed up the effects this ordeal has had: "The issues have caused property damage, safety hazards, health concerns, severe anxiety, and extreme distress on affected residents".
An Issue Known For Decades
The issues brought up by residents aren't new. After James Dolan suggested this had been a problem for at least ten years, one audience member quipped that it was more than that: "I hit the newspaper back when my kids were three years old. I was in a town board meeting and the Register Star grabbed me, and it was in the paper, and my kids were like three. And they are 30 now."
Even before every aggrieved home owner had a chance to speak up, James Dolan took charge and put into words what was on everyone's mind already: "The buck stops with us, the town board". He decreed that the Highway Superintendent, the Water and Wastewater Superintendent and the Town Engineer get together and work out a comprehensive plan, a "wishlist" as Dolan put it, of things that needed doing—no matter the cost or how long it would take. This plan would be presented at the next town board meeting. Under audience applause, he concluded that "this kick-the-can-down-the-road mentality ends tonight".
In a rare instance of town board consensus, Dolan's edict was rephrased as a motion, seconded, and unanimously passed.
And thus ended the workshop. It was encouraging to see that this town board can take residents' concerns seriously—it appears to have done that this night. Next month, Greenport residents should expect a joined report from Water Superintendent James Rutkey, Highway chief John Mausolf and Town Engineer George Schmitt and then everyone should have an idea how bad it really is and how expensive a fix would be.
We sent an email to the town board and Water and Wastewater Superintendent Rutkey last week urging them to have this on the agenda, partially based on the experience of previous meetings when public comments weren't allowed. We believe that the problems Greenport homeowners faced on July 29th aren't limited to just Greenport: Other municipalities in the county and beyond were also hit hard and this may ultimately come down to a race for grant money from NY State to address crumbling infrastructure.
At the end of the workshop, Supervisor Kathy Eldridge must have have felt relieved. Progress appeared to have been made and by all appearances, she came out unscathed. This would change soon enough and this time, she would be fighting not only James Dolan but a proper two-front war. More on this in the next post on the remainder of the meeting. It would be a memorable one with many twists and turns.
