Town Response on the Birches
I received a letter from Supervisor Venditto yesterday in response to my letter, representing Residents for the Protection of Mill Neck Creek, regarding the Birches issue. Those of you who also sent in letters may have received a similar response. I have taken the time to re-type the body of the letter below, as it has some interesting new developments and shows that our efforts are indeed making a difference.
Re: The Birches, Locust Valley
Dear Mr. Lamb:
This correspondence is in reply to your recent letter regarding the above referenced subject.
Over the past several months, the Town of Oyster Bay has engaged in productive discussions with both Nassau County and New York State in an effort to reach a satisfactory resolution to mitigate the water quality impacts that have resulted from malfunctioning sewage disposal systems in the Birches development in Locust Valley. The Town and the County are currently in the process of preparing an inter-municipal agreement to create the necessary legal framework which will provide for a 50-50 cost sharing arrangement for the construction of a community sewage treatment plant and collection system, and the rehabilitation of the local street network. It is expected that this agreement will be executed within the next few months.
Once the inter-municipal agreement is in place, the Town and County will complete the engineering design for the project. The plans for the sewage treatment plant already have essentially been finalized. Of the remaining components of the project, the Town will oversee the design of the roadway and drainage improvements, while the County will be responsible for the sewage collection system. The actual construction work will commence after a contractor has been selected through a competitive bidding process, subsequent to completion of the engineering design. In the interim, the Town and County will continue to pursue additional State funding, and we encourage you and your neighbors to support this effort by contacting your elected State representatives.
Although the community's eagerness for an expeditious conclusion to this matter is understandable, it is difficult at this time to forecast when precisely the Birches treatment plant will come on line. However, please be assured that the end is finally in sight; the process is now fully in gear and is moving steadily toward a resolution.
Please feel free to contact our Environmental Consultant, John Ellsworth, at 677-5824, if you have any questions.
Very Truly Yours,
John Venditto
Town Supervisor
Leonard Genova
Deputy Supervisor
The cost sharing agreement has been a major stumbling block in resolving this issue, so this is an important step. There is no question in my mind that the letters generated on this blog were the driving force behind this agreement. After years of debate, when the constituents of these two municipalities voiced their impatience, a simple agreement to share the costs equally suddenly became palpable to both parties. As I've said before - it's all our money anyway. Those of you who took the time to send a letter, or even better, solicited letters from others, should congratulate yourselves - you did your part. Thanks.
It is encouraging to see the Town and County working together and it shows that the process can work, even if it is far more cumbersome that it needs to be, and I have more hope that this very real threat to public health will finally be resolved than I have ever had before. I will, however, withhold my thanks and praise for the day when the problem is actually solved and raw sewage has stopped flowing into Mill Neck Creek.
Barry E. Lamb
Bayville
Re: The Birches, Locust Valley
Dear Mr. Lamb:
This correspondence is in reply to your recent letter regarding the above referenced subject.
Over the past several months, the Town of Oyster Bay has engaged in productive discussions with both Nassau County and New York State in an effort to reach a satisfactory resolution to mitigate the water quality impacts that have resulted from malfunctioning sewage disposal systems in the Birches development in Locust Valley. The Town and the County are currently in the process of preparing an inter-municipal agreement to create the necessary legal framework which will provide for a 50-50 cost sharing arrangement for the construction of a community sewage treatment plant and collection system, and the rehabilitation of the local street network. It is expected that this agreement will be executed within the next few months.
Once the inter-municipal agreement is in place, the Town and County will complete the engineering design for the project. The plans for the sewage treatment plant already have essentially been finalized. Of the remaining components of the project, the Town will oversee the design of the roadway and drainage improvements, while the County will be responsible for the sewage collection system. The actual construction work will commence after a contractor has been selected through a competitive bidding process, subsequent to completion of the engineering design. In the interim, the Town and County will continue to pursue additional State funding, and we encourage you and your neighbors to support this effort by contacting your elected State representatives.
Although the community's eagerness for an expeditious conclusion to this matter is understandable, it is difficult at this time to forecast when precisely the Birches treatment plant will come on line. However, please be assured that the end is finally in sight; the process is now fully in gear and is moving steadily toward a resolution.
Please feel free to contact our Environmental Consultant, John Ellsworth, at 677-5824, if you have any questions.
Very Truly Yours,
John Venditto
Town Supervisor
Leonard Genova
Deputy Supervisor
The cost sharing agreement has been a major stumbling block in resolving this issue, so this is an important step. There is no question in my mind that the letters generated on this blog were the driving force behind this agreement. After years of debate, when the constituents of these two municipalities voiced their impatience, a simple agreement to share the costs equally suddenly became palpable to both parties. As I've said before - it's all our money anyway. Those of you who took the time to send a letter, or even better, solicited letters from others, should congratulate yourselves - you did your part. Thanks.
It is encouraging to see the Town and County working together and it shows that the process can work, even if it is far more cumbersome that it needs to be, and I have more hope that this very real threat to public health will finally be resolved than I have ever had before. I will, however, withhold my thanks and praise for the day when the problem is actually solved and raw sewage has stopped flowing into Mill Neck Creek.
Barry E. Lamb
Bayville
Barry,
I got the exact same letter.
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The Northender has an article this week regarding the Birches and mentions our letter writing campaign.
http://www.northender.com/feature_story_details.jsp?id=1020
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FINALLY?... Is the heading in the Bayville Village newsletter, referring to the Birches sewage problem.
The Mayor in her true "I've saved Bayville once again" stlye takes claim to working hard on this project for 20 years????
Funny, never read about it in local papers or previous newsletters? If you have been working on it it would have been a public matter and thus discussed at public meetings, maybe even held as a public hearings??? Nothing. We all heard nothing until now that something is being done and looked at by the county and state.
Amazing.
Barry Lamb and Jeff Silver are the two to thank for this disgusting problem being brought to the forfront of Bayville and OB politics. THANK YOU!!!
Jeff for the vision of this blog and Barry for the unwavering love of the enviornment and your desire to make all of us environmentally aware. You have brought this issue to the community and I know the numersou letters you solicited made some important people in politics open their eyes.
Do not stop.
ALSO, anyone reading between the lines, now Gallo and Morhing will have MANY apartments down by the stands. Who do you think is going to rent down there??? There are going to be numerous apartments in both the Posiedon cove and Luca and Mazies building. The face of this Village is changing fast and people need to open their eyes and speak up. You need to speak up at meetings, talking to the Mayor one on one does not count.
One last thought. Anyone see the tennis courts??? How are they organizind the tennis lessons if there is no end date of completion in sight?
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One more thought.
The beautification committee: One person resigned because the committee is useless. The people who volunteered and who want to get real things done in this Village are stymed by the Mayor's hand picked cohorts on the committee.
Evidence of this is they have worked and met for a year and they are still deciding on the signage for the streest!!!! One year. That is remarkable. What do you accomplish in a year? I bet you average more than one group decision per year.
The traffic calming project on West Harbor Drive is being done on a OB road and guess whose backyard backs the road???
Now Centre Island and East end residents have one less lane of egress in emergencies.
In a Village prone to flooding and emergency plans are always being discussed how is it prudent to minimize our ways out?
The next to be narrowed is Bayville Ave. heading out to LV.
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BPR,
Thanks for the positive feedback and encouragement - it is appreciated.
As for the newsletter, Mayor Siegel really has spoken out on this issue many times over the years as well as initiating the contamination study. Unfortunately it all fell on deaf ears at the town, county and state level.
There is no doubt in my mind that the letters written by the readers of this site were the catalyst for any progress on this issue (lets keep in mind that it is still lip service at this point) but neither Jeff nor I are doing this for public credit.
I apologize for the recent lull in activity on the site - I have been exceedingly busy over the last couple of months - but I have no intention of stopping.
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I live in the Birches.I have been trying to get this project underway for 2 years now. Here is the most recent letter I have received from Ray Riberio, Commissioner Of Public Works on May 7 2007.
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http://childrenstories.1colony.com/LVBIRCHES.html
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The letter is very encouraging. There doesn't seem to be any indication of back-peddling or foot-dragging whatsoever. I'm actually beginning to think that after decades of this polluting our waters, it may actually be resolved.
The one thing that remains however, is that we ask that the design be presented in a public meeting so that area residents can be sure that their concerns regarding noise and aesthetics have been addressed.
See what a few letters can do.
Barry
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Since the last 30 posts on this thread was done by yet another lunatic from quaint little Bayville, here's my salute to you: “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.” And that's if you even HAVE 3 friends.....
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