Arlington Lane: A Case Study
When I originally began addressing “The Roads of Bayville” several years ago on this blog, I did my absolute best to keep it objective. I was attempting to get the administration at that time to at least make an attempt to address the glaring flaws in the way that roads were being (or, more to the point, not being) handled. Obviously, living on Arlington Lane, this was no easy task. To my knowledge, Arlington Lane is the best (worst) example of these flaws in existence. I understand that, given the state of things in our little village, this is an ambitious statement.
At this point it may be a good idea to go back and re-read my prior posts on the subject:
http://bayvilleblog.com/2006/11/12/the-roads-of-bayville.aspx
http://bayvilleblog.com/2007/01/21/roads-revisited.aspx
As anyone who drives by Arlington Lane can attest, the road is a shambles. You need not even drive down the road to see that it is virtually impassable in anything but an SUV or truck. Each time we have even a moderate rainfall; the road floods and we are left with standing water for days. In the spring of 2010, there was standing water at the intersection of Arlington and Grove from March 11th to May 21st without ever once being dry - two and a half months.
I’m sure that, right about now, many of you are grumbling to yourselves that we should all just re-pave the road and stop complaining. Obviously, if it were that simple, I wouldn’t be wasting my time writing this. The majority of Arlington Lane residents are ready and willing to pave the road and bear the cost. I realize that that may crush any preconceptions you may have had about this issue, but it is true. In Bayville, we seem to rely more on rumor than fact, and on something that someone said, rather than source documents. These rumors and half-truths then go down in the annals of Bayville history as universally accepted truth, with long time residents willing to swear to their authenticity without having any personal knowledge whatsoever. Few residents of Bayville seem to have the attention span to actually uncover the truth (this, of course, does not include any of the people reading this – you’ve actually made it through the third paragraph).
In the case of Arlington Lane, the perception is that the residents are too cheap or lazy to fix the road. After all, the residents of all those “presidents’ streets” regularly get together and maintain their dead end streets; why can’t we?
The reason that we can’t is water and traffic. Any attempts in the past to fix the road have failed very quickly due to standing water and traffic volume that, over the years, has been funneled to Arlington Lane. I have personally spent thousands of dollars to pave in front of my house several times, only to see it destroyed in one season.
How this all came about is a decades long story, and is the result of a village government that has failed, at every possible juncture, to address a problem that they created through lack of oversight, enforcement and will. It is my intention to tell this story, through a series of posts on this blog, in it’s entirety. The entire story will be based on actual facts and backed up with source documentation. It will tell the story of a past administration unwilling to admit it’s mistakes and a current administration that is terrified to change the status quo; even if the status quo victimizes it’s resident’s and severely affects their quality of life.
As I’ve said, it’s a long story and will include scans of several letters from me (you’ll get a kick out of some of the village’s responses), engineer’s reports and documents from the village archives. I hope that you will take the time to read it all (even broken into several parts it’s way longer than three paragraphs) before coming to any final conclusions. I would like this one to be accurately recorded in Bayville’s virtual history book.
As always, I will not respond to anonymous, inflammatory remarks – not that any of those people have made it far enough to read this.
Barry E. Lamb
Bayville
Sorry I missed you last nite Barry .. the Arlington story is a good one, maybe the Mayor should read it .. As he said last nite , he's got a solution but it entails building a wall around Bayville .. the part he doesn't understand is it won't solve your problem or the issues of other streets that can't drain , either because of berms or access to our precious creek ... seems to me a swiming pool size sump on the edge of the creek where low lying areas could pump to would be a solution .. it might require some super sump pumps but hey , New Orleans is below sea level and they manage to keep the water out for the most part ... I'm going to be petitioning Nassau County for the problems on south Adams ave.so I'll let you know how i make out ..
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Barry, A friend of ours sent a link to your report here. very interesting. i noticed that water on Washington Ave. receded at low tide very quickly after Irene landed - yet water on Arlington is still standing! clearly the drainage that is afforded to residents on Washington is superior to that on Arlington and decisions made decades ago by the Village are having an impact still today. The Village efforts to move the standing water on Arlington into the creek by pumping it there over two days must indicate that they feel responsible for the problem?? just a hunch. thank you for keeping people informed...I look forward to the day that your street is drained and paved properly and that neighboring streets are open to traffic that was approved back in the 70s.
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Barry,
35 years ago when we moved to Bayville, 3rd Street was in worse condition than Arlington. The pot holes were so deep they could rip your muffler off, not to mention that one night, we even found a local drunk lying almost face down in a puddle so deep we really thought he was dead - we called the cops who found he was still alive and brought him home.
The numbered streets, especially back then, tended to have a lot more rental properties than you have on Arlington. Getting landlords to kick in the money to install proper drainage and pave the road wasn't easy. It took several years of collecting dues and utilizing the Village ordinance to levy the taxes of any property owners who refused to pay since we had a majority who wanted the road repaired.
Frankly, I don't understand what your problem is on Arlington, other than a lack of personal responsibility on the part of the property owners to get together and get it done.
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Barry: I walk it, therefore I will read it.
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Lisa-
I agree, you do not understand the problem.
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If the ZBA or the planning board actually did their job then, they would have known the impact of the new construction in that area many years ago would have drainage issues in that area. Now I admit I haven't been up there(ZBA) since it had an effect on me personally but then it was a joke. Hope that has changed. But one of the issues I brought up at the time of the flag lot proposal was a drainage problem and they never even considered it. It was luck,Barry and the previous mayor helped me but it took a lot of fuss to get there.Sorry for your troubles Barry. Any support I can give you just let me know
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Does anyone know why the Bayville Fire Department is suing The incorporated village of Bayville Please see docket number below???????
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASSearch
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Jeff,
Why don't you tell me how many drywells/drains the residents of Arlington have installed over the past 10 years to help me understand, hmmmm?
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I am truly sorry for all the trouble you have been through on that lane. I hope that the Village takes the necessary steps to correct your situation. I also hope the Village will consider all of the information that has been forwarded to them regarding the many reasons that cell tower should probably not be in our small Village at all--but should most definitely not be across the street from our elementary school children.
Please do everything in your power to correct what is wrong with the Village. There are certainly lots of things that are right--let's keep our Village the special place that it has always been. Sincerely, Jo-Tina DiGennaro
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Having read this blog's prior entries regarding the situation on Arlington and based on no further information from the blog's admins, I must come to the conclusion that they are much happier to complain about the unique classification of roads in Bayville rather than buckle down and get the road fixed.
"Leaving decisions that affect the entire community in the hands of small groups of people is unfair to the rest of the community."
Unfair? Nope. I have lived on the east and west ends of Bayville. I was the co-President of our small association on 3rd street and have paid significant but not bank-breaking amounts towards the improvement and maintenance of both 3rd and Dickerson.
Physics tells us that:
1. Water runs downhill
2. Standing water will be drawn out at low tide with a properly installed drain.
It is not the Village's responsibility to install drainage or pave your road if NO REASONABLE ATTEMPT or effort has been made to correct the situation by the homeowners. Get an engineer's report, get estimates and rally the neighbors.
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Funny thing though being in Bayville for 50 years as a kid I don't remember the flooding there until they built that development at the end (I don't know the roads name from Godfrey). Maybe heavy rains but never standing water.
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Jo-Tina,
The Village had a meeting with ATT to renew their contracts on Monday and Verizon is coming up soon. I know you are part of BRACT thought you should know this. I thought they had said to the public years ago that the cells would be able to be taken off when the renewals came up. YOu or someone from you organization needs to go to the meetings regularly so you do not miss these opportunities to speak to the trustees about it.
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Dear Tax payer, Thank you for the heads up--will contact Mayor Watson immediately. Sincerely, Jo-Tina
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Hey Admins,
What do the cell towers have to do with Arlington Lane? Topic control and responses please?
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lisa,
They have nothing to do with it. I saw Jo-Tinas entry adn only knew to contact her throught this way. Admin, you can remove my post, Jo-tina got the message.
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Lisa, Arlington Lane used to drain properly - it was after homes were built on Saltaire that natural drainage from their street was halted - those homes were not built until after the land was raised above the height of Arlington Lane. Approval for the homes on Saltaire was contingent upon three roads being open to Saltaire but two of the three (not Arlington) blockaded their road's access Arlington. Original surveys and permits for homes on Saltaire show Franklin and Washington Avenues open - why has the village let them stay closed? Why do they drain into the creek but Arlington can not? Hint: Get the facts before you blame Barry or his neighbors for doing less than should or could. The Village of Bayville created a problem and a burden for them -- and only the Village is neglecting its' responsibilities.
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Peg,
My brother-in-law rented a cottage at the end of Arlington over 35 years ago (on the left as you drive down, I believe the last house before it open up to Saltaire. It was ALWAYS a low lying area. I'm sure water runs downhill from Carr Pl into that section as well. It should make no never mind whether additional roads are opened up to allow MORE traffic onto Arlington and certainly the terrible potholes on the mid to upper portion of Arlington have nothing to do with the construction of the homes on Saltaire. A few well placed, deep drywells which naturally drain (without piping into the bay) should alleviate the flooding and I do not see why this is the Village's responsibility. As I said, we used to have HUGE puddles on 3rd street (corners of 3rd and First Ave.) and we, the residents, paid to install the drainage to solve the problem. The PROBLEM - is a portion of road that sits at or below sea level and water that runs into it. Those are the facts. Again I ask - has anyone on Arlington gotten estimates and an engineer's report? Have any drywells/drains been installed to attempt to rectify the problem? Or do they just want to complain that the village is "neglecting its responsibilities"? Is it George Bush's fault?
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The October 24, 2011 Regular Meeting of the Village of Bayville's Board of Trustees has been canceled due to lack of a quorum.
A Public Hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 7:45pm at Bayville Village Hall, 34 School Street, Bayville. Copy of Public Notice is posted on the calendar of events for October 25, 2011.
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Dear admin,
Still awaiting those scanned letters and reports you promised above.
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just drove down arlington...who paved it???
does not look like the residents did it since the job does not look like a cohesive one.
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i heard residents unsure who did it
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Next Meeting November 14th, 7:30 village Hall. Make sure you are there!!
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Sniff ... sniff .....
whoa
This smells really bad. I wonder why the blog Admins aren't making any comments or updates. How peculiar.
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