Full Notification

As you may know, we are anticipating a rain event tonight that could result in flash flooding in high-risk areas. Overnight parking restrictions are waived for all residents living in the areas north of Lincoln Avenue.  For those living in flood-prone areas along Highbrook Avenue, you may park in Parking Lot 7 (behind Village Hall), or contact the Pelham Police Department at (914) 738-2000 if you'd like to make other parking arrangements. All in the Village are welcome to contact us if you need special accommodation to protect your personal property.

Last week, Department of Public Works personnel vacuumed all of the storm drains in places that had been previously flooded (we also vacuumed all storm drains at the beginning of the summer), and we reached out to New Rochelle earlier this week to have them open the valve that lowers Glenwood Lake. They do it automatically when expecting a storm of at least two inches, but we remind them anyway, just in case.  DPW crews have been out all day today cleaning the tops of any catch basins that have debris.  If you see a basin that needs to be cleaned, please let us know so that we can get to it. You can send an email to [email protected]. We've been told by our engineers that these are the best temporary measures we can take to mitigate potential flooding and we do our best to stay on top of them.

Long term, we are working to advance a more permanent solution. First, we've just received bids for the second phase of our Sanitary Sewer Evaluation Study, which we kicked off a little over a year ago. This is important for addressing the sewage backup issues many residents experience during significant rain events. While individual homes may have their own unique challenges, the first half of the study revealed a significant amount of "Inflow and Infiltration," which relates to sewer lines that are damaged (allowing stormwater in through cracks, and causing the system to backup into residents' homes) and/or sewer lines that have illegal connections from homes (wherein stormwater is drained directly into sewage lines, creating a similar problem). This fall, we'll be cleaning all sanitary sewers Village-wide, dropping in cameras and conducting smoke tests to reveal the specific places where we'll need to reline the pipes and/or replace the lines entirely.  You'll be hearing a lot about that in the coming months.

The second item is related to actually expanding drain capacity. In the area west of Glenwood Lake, we're dealing not only with drains that lack enough capacity, but a watershed in New Rochelle that drains directly into Pelham via Mayflower, Lincoln Avenue and Glenwood Lake.  I met with Noam Bramson, New Rochelle's Mayor, and he's willing to engage with us on finding a fair path forward.  We're waiting for a proposal from our engineer to develop a full plan for the area and we've requested a similar proposal for the areas around Highbrook Avenue. 

I will keep you all updated as we move along. In the meantime, please stay safe tonight and don't hesitate to reach out to the Pelham Police Department if you are in need of assistance. 

Best,
Chance