Snow melt VS Flood mitigation: Place your bets

It seems safe to forecast that this year's thaw will prove the worth of our flood mitigation efforts, the return on the dollars invested and the competency of those who planned those efforts or voted to pay for them.

Note the plan is to spend vastly more on resurfacing the roads than upkeep or updating the sewer system.   The more impermeable surfaces we have, the worse the flooding will be, it's simple physics.

Should we enjoy the warming and rains forecast for next week, 2006/7 could be a fond memory.   

Of course, the planners will blame the politicians and the politicians will blame higher levels of government as we the tax payers/voters man the sump pumps and shop vacs once again.

I accept that occasional flooding is one of the charms of living in a wetlands.  
Accepting planning that achieves a net zero is a horse of an entirely different color.

I propose that the city look to the future and seek ways to reduce the impermeable surfaces in Rye to allow for greater ground penetration and retention.

We could:

Convert the area between Theadore Frem and the Post Road beginning at City Hall to the South and ending at the train station to the North.   Replace the impermeable roads and sidewalks with cobblestone and create a pedestrian environment for our business district.  
Using geo-thermal and or solar systems, the area could use radiant heat to deal with ice and snow, thus freeing up City staff to a degree.   

We have ample parking with easy access on 3 sides of the business district to make cars on Purchase Street as unnecessary as they are unsafe. 

Seek a partnership, either voluntary or through legislation, between Con-Eddison and the City in which Con-Ed installs solar collectors to their poles which would be used for radiant heat for the city’s sidewalks.

Playing on the theme of Rye’s “historical” past by converting the downtown area into a vintage hamlet scene could profit the community in both the short term and the long term.  Instead of being just another place that the “Founding Fathers” fathered, Rye could be the prototype of the small city of the future.  We have the money and talented people to do demonstrably more for future and the environment than ban plastic shopping bags.

Plans should include Whitby Castle and Play Land to get the most bang for the buck in regard to revenue dollars as each should complement and accentuate the city as a destination.

I have no idea of how much it would cost but we spend a lot of money and time on studies and plans that only profit the planners and studiers while we enduring the hot mess that is Purchase Street while hoping that a sluice gate is going to keep downtown dry.