Wants boro to pay for sewers
Two years ago, when Paul Costa looked at purchasing a home in North Arlington, a lot at the corner of Bergen Avenue and Riverview Avenue seemed like an ideal spot. And then it rained and the floodwaters rarely receded.
At Thursday’s mayor and council meeting, the borough will decide whether or not to pay for the flooding problem at the dead end on Riverview Avenue, which primarily affect Costa and his neighbor.
When it rains, water runs down Bergen Avenue from Ridge Road and turns onto the dead end where Riverview meets the power lines owned by Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G). The water collects at the end of the street where there are no sewer grates, flows into Costa’s yard and rises onto Costa and his neighbor’s driveways. After coming to the mayor and council several times to plea for help, borough engineer Dominick Villano and borough administrator Terence Wall went to Costa’s property to assess the situation.
Villano returned to the council with three options to fix the street. The most thorough option, installing a storm drain with a pipe to run downhill and back to Bergen Avenue, would cost the borough $50,000, Villano estimated.
A middle of the road approach involved building a "bump" at the top the dead end to keep water flowing down Bergen Avenue. This would cost at estimated $15,000, said Villano. The least expensive fix would be to build a second inlet on Bergen Avenue to allow excess rainwater to flow downhill on Bergen Avenue, rather than flowing into the dead end.
Villano recommended the borough choose the most costly option, installing a storm drain with a pipe to send the water downhill to Bergen Avenue. "That’s the sure way of getting the water out of there. The other two are sort of quick fixes," said Villano.
The quick fix solutions might be the only options for the borough, which has been on a mission to cut taxes since Mayor Peter Massa took office in January and declared the borough in a "financial crisis." "They’re trying to Band-Aid the problem instead of fixing it the right way," said Costa. "At the end, it’s going to waste money."
Now, the question has moved from how to fix the problem to whether the cash-strapped borough should fix the problem at all.
At the March 13 meeting of the mayor and council, the question will be whether the storm water problem at the end of Costa’s street is the borough’s problem or Costa’s problem. The council asked Villano if the flooding issue was the borough’s responsibility. Villano deferred the question to borough attorney Tony D’Elia, stating he could not make a legal judgement as an engineer.
D’Elia said the mayor and council would make a decision in closed session at the upcoming council meeting. Costa believes the town should be responsible for the flooding in his yard. "The water is coming from the town," said Costa. "It’s not coming from my property. I can’t do anything about it," he said.
If the town does not fix the road, Costa’s other option would be to fill the channel in his yard. This does not alleviate the problem, but it would keep some of the water in his street and out of his yard.
The borough sought grant money to relieve flooding issues at the end of Riverview Avenue, but found no such money available. "No grant money available for this type of situation," said Villano.
Long before Costa moved to North Arlington, the borough cut off the street, which previously ran west down to River Road, to make way for PSE&G wires. What the borough created was a dead end street without storm drains. "They just blacktopped it and didn’t care which way the water was going," said Costa.
Rather than flowing down Bergen Avenue, the water makes a left onto Riverview Avenue because Bergen Avenue is pitched at a higher level than Riverview at Costa’s corner. A previous owner built a channel, which Costa assumed was a walkway, through the center of Costa’s yard adjacent to the pool. After a storm, he discovered the true purpose of the channel was to keep the excess storm water from creating a lake at the end of the street.
After each rainfall, Costa must clean out leaves, mud and debris that collect in the channel. In the summer, the pool that collects in his yard attracts mosquitoes. At one council meeting, Costa raised the question of whether or not the stagnant water constituted a public health hazard. "This is a big problem. I can’t let my daughter out here," said Costa, as he pointed to the murky water collected in the channel and the weathered blacktop, revealing decades-old cobblestone streets.
